


Out to Pasture

by pterawaters



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Arranged Relationships, F/M, Kidnapping, M/M, Military, Multi, Polyamory, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-09-01 13:54:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 104,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8627050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: Steve always knew his romantic life would be dictated by the Armed Services Expansion Program (ASEP for short), and he was fine with that. He wanted a big family more than anything. Of course, he never imagined being enrolled in the program while trying to track down his brother's killer. Steve didn't count on meeting Danny Williams, either. Caught in a struggle between duty and love, Steve wonders if he'll ever get to have everything he wants.





	1. Late August/Early September 2010

**Author's Note:**

> This is the big WIP I've been working on most of this year. It is not yet done, but I promised I would start posting it when I hit 100K, and right now it's at 103K. So posting it I am! The first three chapters will post this week (because the third one is a Thanksgiving chapter!), and then I'm planning on posting a new chapter every other week until I run out.
> 
> Many thanks to several beta readers, especially [lovethesnark](http://lovethesnark.tumblr.com/)/[kho](http://archiveofourown.org/users/kho), who has given me great feedback at every turn and made this fic immensely better than I could have made it alone.
> 
> Keep in mind that this fic has some problematic aspects (the full list of warnings is below). I've tried to treat them as such within the text, and hopefully I've succeeded at promoting only healthy relationships, including healthy polyamory. This is definitely a polyamory story, so keep that in mind when deciding whether or not you want to read it.
> 
> Also, though the story is rated explicit, I've included links to jump over the sex scenes, if you'd rather not read them.
> 
> Within the sex scenes, there will occasionally be a link to a NSFW image. These links will be clearly marked as NSFW, so click at your own discretion. If you'd like more NSFW images, I've curated content related to this story over on [this NSFW blog](http://outtopasturerefs.tumblr.com/).
> 
> Warnings: Sex work of a sort, polyamory, eugenics, military conscription (mentioned), arranged relationships, brainwashed/unreliable narrator
> 
> POV characters so far: Steve, Kono, Catherine, Danny, Mary, Chin, Jenna
> 
> Here's a helpful family tree, in case you get confused:  
> 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Steve tries to make Hawaii his home again, the death of his brother, Freddie, haunts him.

"Hey, Steve," Catherine says, placing her hand gently on his elbow. "How are you holding up?"

Steve pushes his glass away and wipes his eyes. "Not great," he says, clearing his throat. "What, uh— What are you doing here?"

"Word travels fast," she says, sitting on the next stool over. "I'm so sorry about your brother." She gives Steve a sad, if encouraging smile.

"Thanks," Steve says, taking the hug when she offers it. He chuckles sadly against Catherine's shoulder. "I had to leave his body there. The people from State say it might be years before we get him back, if ever."

Catherine rubs a hand up and down Steve's back. "I'm so sorry. If anything ever happened to Justin, I know I'd be inconsolable."

Drawing back, Steve sighs. "Yeah. And now they won't put me back in the field. God, I'm just glad my father still lived on the compound when…"

"He's been moved now?" Catherine asks, like she already knows the answer. She probably does.

Steve replies, "The brass moved him and Gayle onto base, now that I'm home for good." He watches Catherine's complete lack of surprise. "Did you take leave just to be here with me?"

"Got myself reassigned," she says with a shake of her head and a smile. When Steve gives her a long, questioning look, Catherine raised her eyebrow.

"Got yourself reassigned to _me_ , you mean?" Steve asks, already knowing the answer.

Catherine nods. "It's a big transition, being put out to—" She gives a chagrined smile. "I mean, being taken out of the field so suddenly. I've been meaning to take my bonus sometime soon, and I figured you could use a friendly face as much as I could."

Thinking about what a big change this means for Catherine, he asks, "Are you sure?"

"As sure as I'm ever going to be," Catherine replies. She takes Steve's glass out of his hands, sips at the scotch for a long moment, then puts the empty glass back on the bar. "Come on. I'll drive you home, you can show me around the place."

Steve thinks about wallowing around here longer, trying to forget how he failed to bring Freddie back home. He compares that pathetic image to going home with Catherine, maybe finding some comfort with her, and Steve decide that sounds like a much better plan. "Yeah, okay."

In Catherine's car—a blue muscle car Steve thinks fits her perfectly—Steve asks, "You got your order papers in here?"

"Glovebox," Catherine says, stopping at a red traffic light. 

The sun's still flirting with the horizon, but it's dark already beneath the tall buildings of Waikiki. Still, there's enough street light to read by for now, so Steve pulls out the papers and flips through them. "Standard five years or two kids contract," he notices, whistling when he sees the bonus fees listed. "You're worth a lot of money to the U.S. government!"

"We're both Second Generation," Catherine replies. "Perfectly matched, according to the algorithms, whatever that means." She looks over at Steve briefly before pulling ahead through the green light. "Don't you get a bonus, too?"

"I get to keep my pension," Steve tells her, a sour taste in his mouth. "And I get my monthly salary on top of whatever other work I take, but nothing like _this_." He wiggles the paper around. "They really do want perfect soldiers, don't they?"

"From those of us with successful military careers, definitely." Catherine steals glances at Steve when she's not looking at the road. "Does it bother you, knowing our kids are going to end up in the military, too?"

"There's been talk about ending conscriptions from the program," Steve says, sitting back in his seat and setting Catherine's papers in his lap. "Maybe by the time they're old enough, they won't have to, like we did."

"My sister got out of it," Catherine points out, turning when Steve indicates. "She never passed the physical."

"Mary, too." Steve smiles when he thinks about the happy lilt in Mary's voice when she called him to tell him about flunking out of basic. "I swear, she faked not being able to run fast enough." He shakes his head. "Of course, Gabriel straight-up went AWOL out of West Point."

"Do you have any idea where he is?" 

Steve shakes his head. "Last Malia heard from him, he was somewhere in South America. I don't think he's ever coming home."

"Some people just don't want to fight," Catherine insists, like that explains Gabriel. Maybe someday Steve will explain to Catherine what his half-brother is really like, and why no one in the family was surprised when he went missing. Now just doesn't seem the time.

"The compound is up this road," Steve says, pointing to the left.

Catherine takes the road up the foothills, stopping at the gatehouse. "Wow," Catherine says, looking at the twenty-foot high walls surrounding the compound. "No wonder Victor Hesse had problems getting to your father."

"Yeah, well, Dad may have been First Generation," Steve says, watching the private assigned to the gate come out of his shelter, "but he gave them three special forces men, one of the best helicopter pilots in the Marine Corps, and an Army trauma surgeon. The program likes to take care of their own."

"Hey, Commander McGarrett," says Private Suarez. "Visitors need a background check before I can let them in."

"Relax, soldier," Steve tells Suarez as he hands the papers to Catherine, who gives them to Suarez with her Navy ID. "This one's moving in."

"Ah! Already!" Suarez smiles as he shines his flashlight on Catherine's paperwork. "Let me just check in with base, and then sweep the car, and you'll be good to go."

As Suarez disappears into the gatehouse, Catherine says to Steve, "Most of the areas at Pearl don't even have this much security."

"The non-tourist parts do," Steve insists. 

It's only a few minutes later that Suarez opens the gates for them and lets Catherine drive in. 

Pointing, Steve tells Catherine, "The garage is over there. You'll probably want to park in the far right spot. My dad's old Marquis is still on the far left."

"Is he going to be around much to work on it?" Catherine asks, pulling the car into one of the carport spaces and killing the engine.

Chuckling, Steve says, "I'm sure he'll call first, now that you're here."

"I just remember your penchant for couch sex," Catherine says, smiling at Steve before getting out of the car. She pops open the trunk and pulls out her Navy duffel. She waits until Steve is out of the car before continuing. "Wouldn't want to give the old man a heart attack."

"Definitely not," Steve says, feeling a little drunk now that he's on his feet again. He throws his arm around Catherine's shoulders and breathes in the familiar scent of her. "C'mon. I'll show you the main house."

"The _main_ house?" Catherine asks with a laugh as Steve leads her up the path. "There's more than one house, huh?"

"They're all connected by covered walkways, but yeah." Steve pulls his keys from his pocket and unlocks the front door, resetting the alarm as Catherine moves into the house, and then locking the door behind her. "This part was my dad's. I guess it's mine, now."

There's a living room, an office and dining room, and a kitchen on the first floor, which Steve shows off, turning on the lights one by one. Upstairs, there's two bedrooms, though Steve can't remember anyone ever seriously using the second one. Mostly, it's just filled with boxes of his father's things that haven't migrated onto the base yet.

"Here's my room," Steve says when he shows Catherine in. The room isn't huge, by any means, but it's serviceable. "We'll clear out one of the other houses for you tomorrow."

Steve flops down onto the bed, exhausted by both the drink, and by grief. He closes his eyes, but he can still hear Catherine hovering in the doorway. He looks up at her. "What?"

"Couldn't I just stay in here, with you?" she asks, setting down her duffel. She looks unsure for the first time all night.

Propping himself up on his elbows, Steve says softly, "Cath. You know they're going to send other women. I have to…"

"Yeah, yeah, of course," she says quickly, waving the thought away.

Steve reaches a hand out for her. "Stay with me tonight?"

Putting on a brave smile, Catherine finishes walking into the room and crawls onto the bed, laying down beside Steve. "It was stupid, wasn't it? Getting myself assigned here, to you."

"No," Steve assures her, pulling Catherine into his arms. "No, Cath. I'm glad you're here."

"You won't like the others better than me, will you?" She asks, but there's a playful smile on her face.

Shrugging, Steve says, "I guess that depends."

"On what?" Catherine asks with a surprised laugh.

"On how good you are to me," Steve replies, grinning so she knows he's joking.

Catherine shoves a pillow at Steve's face and says, "Oh, in your dreams, cowboy!"

Steve laughs and wrestles the pillow away from her, but lets himself be pinned. When Catherine kisses him, it's playful, but soft. Gentle. Steve lets himself wrap his arms around Catherine, and kiss her, and forget the rest of the world exists, just for a little while.

~*~

"So," Catherine says from the shower the next morning. "What's this job you're heading off to?"

"It's just a meeting about a job," Steve insists, finishing up his shave at the bathroom sink. "My dad knows the governor, and I think he put in a word with her. He knows I'm going to go crazy if I have to hang around here all day every day."

"That's true," Catherine says with a laugh, turning off the water. She wraps a towel around herself just before Steve catches her and kisses her neck. Catherine's breath hitches beautifully, and Steve wonders if they have a enough time for a little fun.

"What time are you supposed to report to Pearl?" Steve asks, parting the sides of Catherine's towel and slipping his hand over the moist skin at her waist.

"An hour from now," Catherine replies. "If I have to drop you off at your truck, it's going to take almost that long to get all the way over there from here."

"Maybe having jobs is overrated." Steve kisses down the length of Catherine's neck. "I mean, we don't want the program officers thinking we're derelict in our duty."

Catherine laughs and pushes Steve away. "First thing after I get back tonight, sailor. I promise."

"Okay," Steve relents, giving Catherine one last kiss. It's nice having her here, he thinks as he wipes the stray shaving cream from his face and heads for the bedroom. He hasn't thought about Freddie as much, and while it makes Steve feel guilty not to think of him every second of the day, it's also a nice relief.

~*~

"Kalakaua?" a woman calls, drawing Kono's attention. She's in full uniform, just like everyone else here at Schofield, and holding a brown folder. Kono suspects the folder says, "Kalakaua, Kono," on the tab.

"Um, here," Kono says, standing up to greet the woman, who offers her hand. Kono shakes it, maybe a little too firmly, by the look on the woman's face.

"Welcome," she says with a smile that's probably supposed to be comforting. "Corporal Hayley Whitesides. I'll be your program officer for the duration of your time with us."

"Okay," Kono replies, following Corporal Whitesides back through a doorway into an off-white cinderblock hallway lined with other doors. They stop at one and Whitesides gestures Kono into the small, windowless office beyond. 

"Have a seat," she says, following Kono into the room and closing the door behind her. "I understand that your rehab is completed now?"

"Yeah," Kono replies, rubbing her right knee, fingers automatically finding the surgical scars through the fabric of her pants. "I'll never surf competitively again, but I'm back to 90% mobility."

"Good," Whitesides says with a smile as she sits across the desk from Kono. She lays the brown folder open on the desk and flips up the first few pages. "Over the last two months, we've completed your genetic profile. As we suspected given your initial tests, you're not a carrier for any known genetic defects, which considerably broadens your choices for a good match."

"There are choices?" Kono asks, leaning closer to the desk to try to read some of her file upside down.

Whitesides points to a certain place in Kono's paperwork. "Well, your multi-ethnic East Asian and Pacific Islander heritage gives you an advantage when it comes to implementing heterosis. This means you have more potential matches to choose from."

"Heter-what-sis?" Kono asks. "Heterosis." The smile she gives Kono feels patronizing, like this is something Kono would've learned if she hadn't spent her youth surfing. "Also called hybrid vigor. The more genetically diverse the parents, the healthier the offspring."

Kono shifts uncomfortably in her seat at the thought of her future kids being referred to as "offspring".

Whitesides continues, "As the majority of our patriarchs, especially the good-quality Second Generation ones, are White, we're looking to diversify the program as a whole."

"By bringing on women like me," Kono surmises, feeling more like a set of traits on a spreadsheet than an actual person. She crosses her arms in front of her chest. 

"Exactly. Now, if you were Second Generation, or even First, you'd have a wider range of options," Whitesides says, pulling a set of three or four papers from Kono's file. Each paper has a photo of a man in the upper right corner, and then text that Kono assumes is relevant biographical data, but which she can't read from this distance. Whitesides straightens the pile and turns it around, so Kono can see. "If you were willing to move off-island, you'd also have more choices."

"No, I want to stay here," Kono insists, taking the pile and looking at the bio on top. "Louis Greene," she reads, squinting at the badly-printed picture.

"Marine Corps, retired," Whitesides says, eyes on Kono as if she's memorized everything on this paper. "Forty-one. Second Generation. Has already had five partners, six children, with two more on the way. It's an established compound, so you'd have a support structure to lean on, if that's what you want."

Kono shivers at the thought of trying to integrate herself into that big family life of strangers. Plus, the guy is forty-one. Kono's twenty-seven and that fourteen-year difference kind of makes her want to throw up. She slips Louis's page to the back of the pile. 

"Next is Sam Redding," Whitesides says, pointing to the picture on the page Kono just revealed. "Thirty-three. First Generation. Former Navy SEAL. Disabled from combat duty due to a blast that necessitated the amputation of his right foot and lower leg. Otherwise still fully-functional. Two partners, three children."

Suddenly feeling like she's being sold a used car, Kono slips that profile to the back of the stack as well. 

The next page has a familiar name at the top: McGarrett, Steven. "Any relation to Malia McGarrett?" Kono asks, looking for any familiar features in the picture.

"Malia is his half-sister, I believe," Whitesides says, pulling another folder from the stack on her desk. "Yes, they were both born out of John McGarrett's compound in the late '70s."

Kono notices that Steve is thirty-four, which seems leagues better than the guy that was forty-one. Plus, he's Malia's brother, which makes him seem like less of a stranger. Noticing one of the dates, Kono asks, "He was just pulled from the service this week?"

"That's right. It's our policy to pull the eldest son out of the field early when only two sons remain viable for the program. Steven's brother, Frederick, was killed in action recently."

Kono looks at the rest of Steven's bio: Kukui High, then Eisenhower Prep, followed by Annapolis, Naval Intelligence, and SEAL special forces. "Seems more like the kind of guy you'd keep in the field as long as possible," she notes, taking another look at his picture. He looks severe and hard, and not at all like someone Kono would get along with. Yet again, Kono has seen Chin's HPD identification, in which he looks equally severe, even though he's one of Kono's favorite people in the whole world. 

"We can't take the risk of losing our entire investment in the McGarrett line," Whitesides says, and Kono's skin crawls at the glib tone in her voice. "His successes in the field were genetically determined, and we want to make sure those successes continue in the next generation of combatants."

Kono has to work extremely hard not to roll her eyes. The same "genetic determination" arguments were used for centuries to argue that Kono's ancestors were inferior to white people. It was a crap argument then, and it's still a crap argument, but Kono knows she can't say that out loud. Not when getting kicked out of the program could prompt the government to ask for all their money back—money that's already been spent, money that no one in Kono's family has.

There's one more choice, which Kono flips to, quickly noting the age (39) and number of partners (4). She decides she'd rather be there for the formation of one of these weird families, than be thrust into the middle of one with no clue what's going on. Just like Kono took charge of her surfing career, setting her own practice schedules and do-or-die goals, she's going to take charge of this.

"If you're having a hard time deciding, I can choose for you," the corporal says, closing the McGarrett file and setting it aside. "Many women feel better when the choice is taken out of their—" Pulling Steven's sheet out of the pile, Kono hands it to Whitesides. "Him. I want him."

With a pleased smile, Whitesides takes the paper and sets it back in Kono's folder, setting the others to the side. "Excellent. I'll get it all arranged."

"Does he get to choose not to accept me?" Kono asks, folding her hands in her lap for lack of anything better to do with them.

"No," Whitesides replies, and her tone is glib again, very matter-of-fact.

Frowning, Kono says, "That doesn't seem fair. What if he can't stand the way I look?"

"You're gorgeous, as well as athletic and intelligent," replies the corporal, and her smile seems forced. "Any of our patriarchs would be happy to have you."

Kono wonders if anyone has bothered to _ask_ , but she gets the sneaking suspicion the answer is "no".

As Kono leaves Schofield, a sheaf of papers delineating her contract and her reporting orders, she reminds herself that this is for her family. They're counting on her to follow through.

~*~

"Hey, how'd it go?" says John's voice as Steve leaves the Governor's office.

"Dad," Steve says with a surprised laugh, catching his father in a one-armed hug. "You didn't have to show up here. It went fine."

John looks at Steve for a long moment, and he's older than Steve is used to seeing him. Somehow, it seems like John should look the same as he did when Steve and Freddie were fifteen, when they left for the mainland. "Come on, son. I want to take you for lunch."

They end up eating shrimp and rice from a truck, sitting in a secluded corner of the beach. "How's Gayle?" Steve asks before he takes a big bite of his food. It occurs to him three bites in that maybe he doesn't have to eat as fast as he did in the Navy.

With a sigh, John says, "Hanging in there. Still broken up about losing your brother, of course."

"Yeah." Steve chews a little slower. "I think we all probably are."

John nods. He's silent for a long moment, his fork tapping the side of his paper dish. Finally, he takes a sharp breath, and then speaks. "About what happened to Freddie. I don't think it was an oversight that you two went in outgunned and outmanned."

"We both knew the risks," Steve insists. He has to. It's the truth he's been holding onto for the past eight days. 

"You knew a _version_ of the risks," John insists. "And I'm not sure it was the right one."

Frowning at his father, Steve asks, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying I've been looking into a few things here on Oahu." He lowers his voice. "Corruption, mostly. I think I may have stumbled across something bigger, and I think it might have gotten Freddie killed."

"Something bigger than the international arms dealers that we brought into custody?" Steve asks, setting his food aside so he can give John his full attention.

"Much bigger," John says with a grave nod. "Look, I was making no progress looking into this from within the police department, even starting to run into some push-back, which is why I retired. I tried to continue the investigation independently, but without those resources…"

"Your investigation's going nowhere," Steve surmises. He sighs, scratching his forehead. It doesn't take much thought to follow where John is headed with the conversation. "You want me to take the job. Finish what you started."

John looks out over the ocean. "Yeah. Steve, it could be dangerous. These people don't want to be found out. I can't prove they had anything to do with Freddie's death, but…" He sighs. "I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't for your brother's sake."

"No, I'll do it." Steve looks out over the water as well, his eyes finding a boat's silhouette two miles off shore. "This task force the governor wants me to run will work outside the rules that apply to the police force. Might allow me to get further than you did without tipping them off."

Giving a hum of agreement, John turns toward steve. "Just promise me you'll be very careful about the people you choose to trust. This thing goes all the way to the top, Steve. A third of my old colleagues in HPD are owned by the Yakuza. Maybe more."

"The Governor?" Steve asks, not liking the disgusted look on John's face.

"I've known Pat a long time," John says carefully. "She came up as a prosecuting attorney here in Honolulu. I didn't want to think this of her, but I just— I've got that gut feeling, you know?"

Steve claps his father's shoulder. "Yeah. I know." Steve squints at the sunlight coming off the water. "So, is there anyone you do trust?"

"I might know a guy," John says in a drawl. 

~*~

As soon as Steve's sworn into the governor's task force, he starts requesting case files from the Sergeant at the downtown precinct. The man his father trusts, Chin Ho Kelly, was one of the officers who responded to the attack on his father's compound. The other, Danny Williams, is a _haole_ , six months fresh from the mainland and Chin Ho's partner.

A task force has got to have more than one member, right? Well, Steve needs people he can trust. Who better than John's former partner and the new guy least likely to have been corrupted by whatever plague that's spread through HPD?

Steve's on his way to where the Sergeant said Kelly and Williams would be when his phone rings. He puts it on speaker and calls out, "Yeah?"

"Steven J. McGarrett?" a woman's voice asks.

"This is," Steve replies, propping the phone on the dash so he can have both hands on the wheel. Now that he's back in the States, he knows he's got to look into getting a phone that can connect up to his car speakers. "Who's calling?"

"I'm Corporal Hayley Whitesides, from the Armed Services Expansion Program," she replies.

Frowning, Steve asks, "Is this about the task force job? Look, it's mostly command. I'll hardly be in the line of fire at all." It's a lie, but if there's one thing Steve inherited from his mother, it's the ability to conceal the truth.

"While that's good to know," Corporal Whitesides says with a chuckle, "no. This is about your partner placements. I've been informed that Lieutenant Rollins has already reported for duty."

"Um, that she has," Steve says, unable to keep the smile from his face. "You just checking up, or…"

"I'm calling to inform you of a second placement, to start as soon as possible."

"A second—" Steve shakes his head. "Wow, you people really don't mess around, do you?"

Corporal Whitesides snorts and says, "Well, it's as you said. This new job of yours isn't exactly as _out_ of the line of fire as we would like. The sooner we can get production rolling, the better all of us here at the program will feel."

"Production, huh?" Steve asks, pulling up to a small bungalow house, a red sportscar and a silver one both parked in the drive. "That's what we're calling it these days?" He rolls his eyes and puts the truck into park on the side of the road. "What's the new placement's name?"

"Kono Kalakaua," Corporal Whitesides replies. "She's a professional athlete, and comes from a large family of police officers here on the island."

"New recruit to the program?" Steve asks, noticing the lack of military background.

Corporal Whitesides replies, "Yes. We've been recruiting athletes like Kalakaua who get injured and are no longer able to compete. We find the five year contract gives them time for a nice transition into a new career while they're working for us."

Steve thinks that statement probably sounds a lot better on paper than it does out loud. "Yeah, okay. Thanks for the warning. I'll see her when you guys get her to the house."

"Expect her no later than tomorrow evening," the Corporal says. "Have a nice day."

"Yeah, you too." Steve hangs up and looks over at the house again. Rain starts to fall, fat drops bright in the late afternoon sun. Shit. He'd better get a move on before it really starts coming down.

Using the file Steve got from the Sergeant as an umbrella, he runs up to the house and raps quickly on the screen door. Steve hears muffled voices from inside, and then the inner door opens. 

Steve is standing face-to-face with his eldest sister. "Malia?"

"Steve!" she cries, pushing open the screen door and ushering him into the house. It's small—especially given the compound he and Malia grew up in—but cosy, and it looks like it fits her well. "I didn't know you were coming by today."

"I didn't know this was your house," Steve says, flushing with embarrassment. "What happened to your place over by Tripler?"

Malia laughs, pulling Steve into a hug. "I moved in with my fiancee almost a year ago. Let me guess—Dad forgot to tell you."

"Dad forgot to tell me," Steve repeats, pulling a little at Malia's curly hair, which makes her giggle like it always did. "I'm guessing your fiancee is Chin Ho Kelly, then," he says, holding up the folder in his hand.

"Is that an HPD folder?" Malia asks with a groan. She rolls her eyes. "You're turning into Dad."

Steve laughs, because it's not entirely untrue. "Well, I've been shoehorned into the program already. They've got me set up in Dad's house. Might as well complete my new look."

"At least tell me they got you a new bed," Malia cries, clutching Steve's arm. 

With a grimace, Steve replies, "I'm not entirely sure."

"Eww," Malia replies with a peal of laughter. "You know that's where he and Gayle have spent the last twenty-five years _doing it_!"

Before Steve can retaliate for that awful mental image, two men come into the room from the back of the house. One of them is a little shorter than Steve, and has dark hair and high cheekbones. The other is closer to Malia's height, and blonde. The dark haired one asks, "Malia? Who's this?"

"This is my brother, Steve," Malia says, meeting the man halfway. She lightly backhands his shoulder and says, "If you'd've come to Freddie's memorial, you would have met him." She turns to Steve, "This is Chin Ho. That's his partner, Danny Williams."

Williams points back and forth between Steve and Malia. "Wow, you two do not look _at all_ related."

Steve finds himself smiling at the tone in Williams' voice. "Half-siblings," Steve explains. "We have the same father."

In a low voice, Chin says to Williams, "Malia grew up on an ASEP compound."

Williams makes a silent "Oh" and nods, letting the subject drop. As much as Steve knows he didn't have the most traditional of childhoods, it always felt normal to him growing up. He's never a big fan of the moment when other people find out. At least in the Navy he was much more likely to run into people with families like his. That's going to change in the civilian world. 

"Anyway," Steve says. "I'm here on business. There's this task force the Governor has asked me to lead up, and our first case is trying to figure out how Victor Hesse got into the country, and how he got hold of the weapons he tried to use to kill my father."

"That's the case _we're_ working on," Chin says, sharing a look with Williams.

"It's the case you're still working on," Steve assures him. "I'm recruiting you both to my task force. Your Sergeant and Captain have already approved the transfer."

"You _what_?" Williams cries, taking a step toward Steve.

Chin holds him back. "Hang on, Danny." Turning to Steve, Chin asks, "Is this a temporary task force?"

"Not if this case goes well," Steve insists, waving the case file. "Look, I've been tracking this son-of-a-bitch for five years. The people he and Anton worked with in North Korea killed my brother. There's no way I'm giving up on this when we know he could still be on the island."

Watching Chin's expressions, and to an extent Danny's, Steve can tell he doesn't quite have them convinced. "The Governor has given us immunity and means to get this done. No bureaucracy. No red tape. Plenty of classified tech." He looks Chin straight in the eye. "No Yakuza influence. My father told me you were the man I could trust. Was he wrong?"

Chin's eyebrows lift away from his eyes, and the frown on his lips is almost impressed. He gives it a moment, then looks back at Danny. "What do you think?"

Danny looks impressed as well. He eyes Steve up and down, his lower lip jutted out in what looks almost like a pout. He takes a breath and throws his hands wide. "Well, it would be nice for once not to be the only _haole_ on the team."

Chin laughs and reaches toward Steve, putting a hand on Steve's shoulder, and then one on Danny's. "Steve's no _haole_ , brah. He's born and raised."

Steve gives Danny a self-satisfied grin, and Danny makes a face like he can't decide whether to be amused or offended, so he's going for both.

Laughing again, Chin says, "Well, you and I are already ohana, Steve. I'm in."

Danny crosses his arms over his broad chest and frowns at Steve for a second before sighing. "Fine. I'm in, too."

"Come on," Chin says, waving Steve toward the back of the house. "Let me show you what we've been working on."

As Steve follows Chin, Danny behind him, Malia calls after them, "If you boys are going to be at this all night, I'm gonna take a shift at the hospital!"

"Sounds good, baby," Chin calls over his shoulder. "I'll leave the light on for you."

Steve hears Danny chuckling behind him, and he vows to look up the rest of Danny's personnel file so he can figure out what is Danny's deal, exactly. It seems important to know.

~*~

Catherine has been in the Navy for her entire adult life. Moving from Naval Intelligence with the Enterprise to Naval Intelligence at Pearl Harbor should not be much of a change. She’d been stationed at Norfolk in between her first and second tours in the Middle East. Pearl Harbor shouldn’t be that different.

Sure, she has new commanders, and a new set of responsibilities, seeing as she will be land-based for the next five years, at least. But she can honestly never remember being treated differently than any other sailor before today.

There had been the occasional comment off-duty from one of her peers, but there were so many other ASEP kids, that she’d immediately felt cohesion and familiarity with her unit. They were her brothers and sisters in arms, her equals, and Catherine had always loved that about the Navy.

Today, the change starts with her CO, Commander Lennox. The way he says, “Good morning, Lieutenant,” sounds a lot like, “Hey, little lady.” When he shows her to her desk, he says, “Now, this will be transitional. If you want to keep working after—“ He makes a round motion with his hand over his belly. “You’re going to have to move off-base at that point. Either you can work from home, or we have an office in downtown Honolulu for just this purpose.”

Catherine gets the impression Commander Lennox would rather she didn’t work _at all_ , but that he's following orders from his superiors to “entertain” Catherine’s desire to keep her career going during this time.

Lennox gives Catherine a few administrative tasks, nothing she hasn’t done a million times before, and says, “When you’ve finished these, why don’t you go ahead and go back to your compound? The Captain wants you to help with some training tomorrow. Probably going to be a 12-13 hour day for you, so you’ll want to rest up.”

Catherine just barely manages not to glare at him. It’s like he doesn’t realize she’s used to working 12 on, 12 off while on ship. And then, there are always all-hands-on-deck periods where anyone onboard is lucky to get more than thirty minutes of sleep at a time. To suggest that Catherine has made it to Lieutenant unable to keep long hours is incredibly insulting.

And of course, Catherine doesn't miss the fact that Lennox turns to an Ensign as soon as he thinks Catherine is out of earshot and mutters, “Breeders, huh?”

The whole drive home, Catherine has her fists clenched tightly around her steering wheel.

Now she’s standing at the door to one of the cabins in the McGarrett compound, contemplating whether she really wants to commit to this one next to the far western wall, or if the one in the middle would be better. The compound looks nothing like the pseudo-apartment building in Virginia where Catherine grew up. She can't tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

As soon as she crosses the threshold, the lingering scent of fragrance and wooden furniture hits Catherine, making her presence here feel even stranger. At least she can classify in her mind the main house as _Steve's_ , where she's just a visitor. Theoretically, this cabin isn't Steve's at all.

It’s Catherine’s.

At least, according to the guard in charge of readying the place, it’s hers until she has a baby. Maybe it could be again after her kids are grown and out of the house. Catherine imagines staying with Steve that long, and finds out she can't quite picture it. 

With a shaky sigh, Catherine grabs a few things from her suitcases and then retreats back to Steve's house. Maybe she'll confront her future in the morning.

~*~

Steve gets in late enough that Catherine's already asleep—in Steve's bed. He crashes alongside her, worn out by the long day.

In the morning, Steve wakes up with Catherine's hand in his boxers and her lips on his neck. "Wake up, sailor," she says in a teasing voice, nipping at his earlobe. "Time to attend to your duties."

Skip the NC-17 part

Steve laughs and rolls over, pinning Catherine down with his body and capturing her lips in his own. "Duties, huh?" Steve asks, kneeling back long enough to pull off Catherine's top. He kisses down the center of her body, hooking his fingers into her panties and dragging them down her thighs. "How's this for duties?"

Catherine groans deeply when Steve licks at her, and shudders when he sucks lightly on her clit. "Oh, fuck."

"Mm-hmm," Steve says, delving in deeper. After all, he's not one to shirk on his duties.

As Catherine comes with a whine, she pulls up on Steve, kicking his boxers away with her feet and pulling him close. Steve buries himself in her with one, careful thrust, though she's wet enough that his care turns out to be unwarranted. When Catherine urges him, Steve picks up the pace, and from there it's only a minute or two before she's shaking again, gasping and clenching around him. Steve lets himself come and settles into her, breathing the scent of Catherine's skin. 

Catherine holds onto him, stroking her hands up and down Steve's arms and back, and Steve pictures having to share this with someone else, soon. Sure, he's had other partners before, but not that many, given how careful he's had to be about disease. Never have they been overlapping, the way it'll have to be here with Catherine, and with this new woman, Kono.

He's not sure how well he's going to handle it.

~*~

When Danny's alarm goes off, he wishes he could shoot his clock. Alas, his gun is locked up in the lockbox on the shelf in his closet, where it stays every night, regardless of whether or not Grace is staying with him. Even before Grace was born, Danny forced himself into the habit of unloading his gun and locking it away safely as soon as he got home. When Rachel had complained, asking Danny how he could possibly protect them from an intruder with his gun locked away, he asked, "Do you know how many kids accidentally shoot themselves every year? That's not going to be my daughter." Then he showed her the baseball bat under the bed.

The same bat—the one Danny's dad bought him when he made Varsity junior year of high school—lays under Danny's pull out mattress now. Just in case. 

Danny hauls himself out of bed an hour early, because this morning is a Grace morning. Rachel, _allows_ Danny to drive Grace to school twice a week, in addition to the two days every other weekend he gets to spend with her. 

It's not enough time. 

Danny thinks it's never going to be enough time, but he tries to make the most of it. After all, he's living on borrowed time as it is. The memory of Grace's namesake makes Danny press a hand against the shower wall and just breathe for a moment, the water spraying down on the back of his neck. Danny can't help but picture any partner he's ever had end up the same way—gut shot and bleeding out within a matter of minutes. 

Lately, Danny's nightmares have been about Chin. He wonders if he'll have any about this new guy. McGarrett. 

On his way out the door, Danny just barely remembers the stuffed rabbit he picked up at the toy store two days ago. Grace has been obsessed with rabbits for the past month, and although he can't afford to spoil his daughter the way he wants to, he can swing a twenty-dollar stuffed animal now and then.

On his way to pick up Grace, Danny's phone rings. "Yeah, Chin? What's up?"

"Got a lead," Chin replies. "When HPD took down that arms dealer last night—Doran, the one whose weapons were used at our crime scene—they found a girl."

"A girl?" Danny asks, forcing his attention back on the road. God knows, even with insurance, Danny can't afford to run into any of the extremely expensive cars in Rachel and Stan's neighborhood. 

"Nineteen. Told us her name is Chen-Chi, once we finally found a translator. We think she was being sold into the sex trade."

"Aw, jeez," Danny says with a sigh. "So Hesse was working with some real low-lives before we caught him at the compound."

"Yeah," Chin replies. "Anyway, after you drop off Grace, can you pick up McGarrett and bring him to Queen's Medical? Chen-Chi might have some more information, but the translator's only going to be with her for another hour and a half."

Frowning at the prospect of being alone with such an intense guy this early in the morning, Danny asks, "Why can't you do it?"

"You're closer, brah," Chin replies. "And I promised Malia I would taste wedding cakes with her this morning."

"You know how I hate it when you track my phone," Danny replies, pulling up to Rachel's place and parking in the street beside the driveway. "And don't let her talk you into something other than chocolate. Your wedding day is not a day for healthy eating!"

"Got it," Chin replies with a laugh, before hanging up. 

Danny looks at his phone and can't help but feel a little jealous. Sure, he's happy for Chin. God knows Chin deserves to be happy. After his own failed marriage, Danny isn't so sure getting married is the way to go.

But Danny misses being close to someone, misses coming home to anything but an empty house, misses _sex_. Maybe Danny _should_ let Chin set him up with one of Malia's friends, like he's been threatening to the past few months. This being alone bullshit is starting to get old.

Danny's barely out of the car to go ring the bell at the gate when the gate opens and he sees Grace skipping down the driveway. She's got a clear box swinging from her right hand, and as she gets closer, Danny realizes it contains a real, live rabbit. 

Suddenly insecure about the pink, fluffy monstrosity sitting in his passenger seat, Danny reaches in and chucks it into the back, where hopefully Grace won't see it. 

Danny turns around and greets his daughter with the best smile he can give her. He tries to savor the moment, because it's going to be over all too quickly.

~*~

Steve's still laying in bed with Catherine when his phone rings. It's the number he programmed in yesterday, for Danny. Sighing, Steve answers the phone. "McGarrett."

"McGarrett," Danny says, his voice irritated, even though it's a beautiful morning outside. "Get your ass out here. We've got a lead."

"Out here?" Steve asks, giving Catherine a parting kiss. "Out where? Where are you?"

Danny snorts. "Where d'you think I am? I'm here outside Fort Knox. Your guard is staring at me like I'm a crazy person."

Steve smiles despite himself, more amused by Danny than he thought he would be. "That's because it's eight o'clock in the morning, and I have my own truck."

"That truck is a menace," Danny insists. "We're taking my car. Now come on. Get your ass out of bed. We've got a witness and she's only going to be available for the next hour."

"Fine. Eight minutes," Steve says, hanging up on Danny's spluttering. He turns to Catherine and says, "Just so you know, there's a new woman who's supposed to show up today," Steve tells her. "Her name's Kono. You going to be on base all day, or are you going to be here when she comes?"

"On base," Catherine replies, stretching her arms over her head, and God, Steve doesn't want to go to work just now. "It's a 24 hour shift. I'll probably catch a few hours sleep there, be back here tomorrow afternoon."

Steve leans over Catherine and gives her a nice, long kiss. "I'll see you then."

He showers off as quickly as he can and dresses on the way down the stairs, jogging out to the gate and letting himself through it right when he said he would.

Danny's waiting there, leaning against the silver Camaro Steve saw at Malia's place the night before. "Eight minutes?" Danny asks, his tone incredulous. "What the hell are you talking about, eight minutes? Why not just round to ten like a normal person?"

"Get in the car, Danny," Steve says with a smirk. He climbs into the passenger seat and notices a flash of color from the back. Looking over his shoulder, Steve sees a giant stuffed rabbit in the back. He points to it and raises his eyebrows as Danny climbs into the car.

Danny follows Steve's finger and shakes his head. "Don't ask. Please, just— Don't ask."

"Okay," Steve replies, throwing up his hands, though he can't say he's not intrigued. What is it about Danny Williams that tickles Steve's curiosity so?

~*~

"I mean, this is good, we got a name," Danny says, stripping off his huge Kamekona t-shirt. Steve finds himself watching the way Danny's arm muscles move as he accomplishes the task. "But we don't have enough evidence to go in there and bust up this Sang Min guy."

"We need an undercover," Steve says. "Get some recordings that prove this guy's been smuggling people onto the island."

"It can't be one one of us," Chin points out. "An island of less than million people, bad guys know our faces."

"Who are we going to get?" Danny asks. "Bringing in someone from the mainland would take too long. Sang Min could spook and leave the island for good."

Chin smiles and says, "I think I've got just the right person. Follow me."

Chin leads them a few miles up the coast, and parks at Waimea Bay. On the walk down to the beach, Chin tells them, "My cousin, Kono, has been considering heading to the police academy this fall. I keep telling her she should go for it, but I really think she might need a taste for the work before she commits."

"Wait," Steve asks as they head over the sand, toward where there's a couple of surfers in the water. "Did you say your cousin's name was Kono?"

"Yeah, brah," Chin says, pointing out to a figure on the waves. "Kono Kalakaua. Do you know her?"

"Not yet," Steve replies, scratching his head at the coincidence. "I was supposed to meet her later today."

"Really?" Danny asks, cringing when some guy knocks into Kono, sending her sprawling into the wave below her. "What were you supposed to meet her about?"

"ASEP stuff," Steve mutters, moving on quickly. "She hasn't even been through the academy, Chin. How do you know she can go through with an undercover op?"

"Oh, she can handle herself," Chin replies, pointing toward where Kono's stalking out of the water toward the guy that crashed into her. 

She yells at him, and then knocks him flat on his ass with one solid punch. 

"Yeah, okay," Steve relents, and he has to admit to feeling more than a little turned on. A glance sideways shows Steve that Danny's having a similar reaction. 

"Cousin!" Kono cries as she spots them, running up to give Chin a soggy hug. "What are you doing here? Who're your friends?"

Chin introduces them, and Steve notices the way Kono's eyes go wide with recognition at his name. 

" _You're_ Steve McGarrett?" Kono asks, holding out her hand for Steve to shake.

He does so, using his other hand to take off his sunglasses so she can see him better. "Yeah," he says with a smile. "Crazy coincidence, huh?"

"Not that crazy," Kono insists, looking Steve up and down. "Handsome sailor like you comes into ASEP rotation, all the eligible girls on the island are vying to be on your dance card."

"Yeah?" Steve asks, the flattery making his cheeks go hot. "Is that right?"

"Hey. I'm here too," Danny says, drawing Kono's attention onto himself. He shakes Kono's hand, saying, "Detective Danny Williams. Very nice to meet you." He looks Kono up and down, shaking her hand for far too long until Chin clears his throat. 

"We've got a job for you," Chin offers, picking up what must be Kono's towel from the sand and shaking it before handing it to her. "If you're at all interested."

Kono takes the towel and starts drying her hair. "Tell me about the job."

~*~

Steve's fascination with Danny Williams grows as they're driving from the HQ the Governor's setting up for them at Iolani palace to the HPD tech office for a surveillance van. Danny gets a phone call, the ringtone that famous song from the _Psycho_ shower scene. "Yes, Dear?" Danny answers, his voice acidic. 

Danny's tone quickly changes, his face lighting up in a smile as he listens. "Hey, Monkey! No, I thought you were your mom."

Steve tries not to eavesdrop on Danny's half of the conversation, but he finds it impossible to not. Danny and his daughter talk about someone named Mr. Hoppy, and he ends the conversation by saying, "Remember, Danno loves you."

The whole exchange is so sweet and so at odds with Danny's gruff exterior, that Steve can't help but stare at the man. It's just like the giant pink bunny from yesterday, and Steve really can't figure him out.

Danny notices Steve staring and asks, "What?"

Steve doesn't know how to respond, so he asks, "Danno?"

"Forget it," Danny says quickly, keeping his eyes on the road. Obviously he's not going to explain, which just intrigues Steve that much more. 

Still, Steve lets it drop for now. Danny and Chin are his new team. Steve's going to learn everything about them sooner, rather than later.

Steve thinks the conversation is bound to be over, but Danny shifts in his seat and then says, "So explain to me how this whole ASEP thing works."

Steve's caught off guard, and he's not quite sure how to respond. "It's common knowledge, isn't it?"

"I know what they tell us," Danny insists. "But from an insider's perspective. I'm curious. What's it like?"

With a nervous chuckle, since he's not sure whether Danny's going to turn out to have moral objections to Steve's _life_ , Steve asks, "Why? Are you thinking of applying?"

" _God_ , no," Danny says, and this is it. Steve knows what's coming. "I couldn't even hold onto _one_ wife. There's no way I could handle _several_."

Steve's laugh comes out more relieved than he intends. Steve has heard all the standard arguments against ASEP, and he's glad none of them came out of Danny's mouth. "They're not _wives_ , Danny. The women I'll be working with are _partners_ , and they'll only be around five years at the most."

Danny frowns. "What if you fall in love with one of them? Won't that suck, having her leave after five years?"

"She could stay for longer if she wanted to," Steve insists, still amazed by how little the general public understands about the program. "My term is ten years. After that, I can be with whoever I want, for the rest of my life."

"Oh," Danny readjusts his hands on the wheel and frowns. "For some reason, I thought they'd have you making babies until you were old and crotchety and couldn't get it up anymore."

Laughing at the curl of Danny's lip, Steve says, "Nah, that's a myth. The other side likes to scare people with images of really old guys paired up with unwilling young girls."

"That's not how it works?" Danny asks.

"Nah," Steve replies with a shake of his head. "Most of my partners will be women around my age who were born in the program. Proven soldiers, you know."

"Only the best of the best for you, huh?" Danny asks. "You must've been pretty successful yourself."

"I lived to thirty-five while working in Special Forces," Steve says. He quickly looks out the window so Danny won't see the way his eyes start to water. "My brother, Freddie, didn't. I mean, that's why they've got me all set up, not even two weeks after his death. They want to capitalize on their investment before all the McGarrett men are gone."

"All?" Danny turns a corner, his eyes mostly on the road when they're not darting furtive glances over at Steve. "How many of you are there?"

"Freddie was killed in action. Peter's in the Rangers," Steve says. "It's two more years before he's eligible to be put out." With a sigh, Steve adds, "And Gabriel did a runner when he was seventeen. No one knows where he is."

Danny whistles and pulls into the HPD lot. "How many kids did your dad end up having?"

"Seven," Steve replies. "You met Malia. Jane's in the Marines. They'll probably pull her into the program before she turns thirty." Steve unbuckles his seatbelt. "And then there's Mary. She's not really what you might call the soldier type."

Danny gets out of the car and meets Steve on the walk up to the building. "Too gentle?"

"Too unpredictable," Steve replies, using one finger to make a circular motion near his temple. "The program officers try to make each generation better soldiers, not worse."

Danny rolls his eyes, taking the open door as Steve passes it off to him. "You know, you guys are gonna be replaced by robots before this whole 'expansion program' makes a difference in the quality of soldiers. You know that, right?"

"I'm just doing my duty by my country, man," Steve insists. "If it turns out my kids won't have to fight, or won't have to be on the front lines, that would be great." He stops Danny with a hand on Danny's arm, "But let me tell you, I'd rather send one of my kids to look the enemy in the eye and make that judgement call. A human being doing that job will spare lives when possible, a machine won't."

Danny makes a gesture and a shrug, like he concedes to Steve's point. "Come on. Let's get that van. Op starts in an hour."

"Right," Steve replies, turning his attention to the task at hand. "Let's go."

~*~

Kono takes a deep breath, sure that Chin has her back. She's got good feelings about the other two, because Chin seems to trust them. Plus, she's going to have to trust Steve eventually, right? She agreed to be one of his partners. She's going to be living in the same compound as him very shortly. 

How best to find out whether she can trust him than running an undercover op with his task force?

Laughing at herself for that thought, because if she gets killed, someone else in her family is going to have to work off the debt to the U.S. government, and there's no way Kono wants it to be anyone but her. 

Besides, this is a great opportunity to prove to everyone, but mostly herself, that even though her surfing career is over, she's worth more than whatever "genetic contribution" she can make to ASEP's insane program.

Being undercover is scary, but Kono keeps her cool, even when Sang Min makes her undress in front of all his men. It feels vaguely like the way the ASEP rep looked at her, more like she's a means to an end than a person. Kono hates it, but she hides her hate carefully under the persona she's supposed to be playing. 

After sending out her picture, Sang Min gets a text back. "Oh, not a cop, but related to _several_ of them?" With a mean smile, he reaches for the gun on his desk.

Steve crashing the surveillance van through the wall of the warehouse is definitely a surprise. His competence as he takes down Sang Min's men is quite the sight to behold, though Kono has to admit, she only gets glimpses of it now and then as she fights off her own attackers. 

Once he's outgunned, Sang Min puts down his weapon and raises his hands. "Okay, okay. I give up."

Kono watches, sharing a look with Danny, as Steve and Chin sit Sang Min down in a chair, handcuff him to it, and start their interrogation.

"Where is he?" Steve shouts, and Kono has to admit, he knows how to be intimidating. "Where is Victor Hesse? We know you brought him onto this island. We know you hooked him up with Doran so he could get weapons. What I want to know is where he is now."

Sang Min looks at Steve, unimpressed and unintimidated. His eyes rove around the other three of them, and then he starts to laugh. "That _haole_ piece of shit is wearing concrete boots at the bottom of the ocean. Word is The Dragon himself didn't like last week's little _failure_."

"The Dragon?" Steve asks, his brow furrowed. "Who the hell is The Dragon?"

"Sounds familiar," Kono says, pretty sure she heard Uncle talking about him before he retired.

Danny shakes his head, but Chin sighs glumly. "Most people think he's a myth, but everything I've seen points to him being real. We just can't figure out who he's affiliated with." Chin turns to Sang Min. "Triads? Snakeheads? Yakuza?"

"All of the above, boss," Sang Min says with a sneer. "What The Dragon says goes, and word is he said your little friend Hesse had to _go_."

Kono watches the way Danny puts his hand on Steve's shoulder and says, "We'll put word out that we're looking for a body."

"Yeah," Steve says, looking more than a little disappointed. As he leaves the warehouse, Kono catches up with him.

"You believe Sang Min?" she asks, watching Steve's face carefully. He might not be a cop the way Kono knows cops, but she recognizes that he's going to be an excellent person to learn from if she wants to make policing her career.

"Unfortunately," Steve says with a sigh. "And it doesn't sound like this Dragon thing is something we're going to figure out tonight."

"No," Kono agrees, stopping short when she hears a noise coming from the shipping container next to the warehouse. "Steve?" she asks, getting his attention and pointing to the container. "I heard something."

A concerned furrow in his brow, Steve draws his gun and levels it at the container. He nods Kono closer to it, and she understands that he wants her to open it. Kono's proud of herself for being a quick study and figuring out how to open the container within a second or two. She watches Steve tense up as she unlatches the door and pulls it open.

Then Steve's shoulders fall and he relaxes, putting up his gun. Kono peers around the door and sees that the container is full to bursting with people, all of whom look relieved to see that Kono and Steve aren't Sang Min. 

"Come on," Steve says to the young woman at the front of the container. "Let's get you out of there."

Kono helps person after person out of that horrible prison, and it just confirms what she's been thinking for a long time; if she's not going to be a surfer, she's going to be a cop. 

~*~

"So," Kono says, leaning against the police car next to Steve as they watch HPD catalog Sang Min's trafficking victims. "Good day's work, huh?"

"Yeah," Steve replies, giving her a smile. "You made a great asset to the team." The proud smile on Kono's face tells Steve everything he needs to know. "As soon as you finish the academy, there's a place for you on Five-0."

"Really?" Kono asks, her face lighting up before it falls again. "But what about my," she lowers her voice, " _other job_?"

"Well, just because we have to try, doesn't mean we have to try all that hard, right?" Steve tells Kono, leaning against the car next to her. "And they expect there to be a 'getting to know you' phase. That could last the six months you'll be in school."

Laughing, Kono knocks her shoulder against Steve's. "You know, I expected you to be different."

"Different how?" Steve asks.

"More...eager, maybe?" she says. 

Danny walks past where Steve and Kono are standing, holding onto an elderly woman as he helps her get to the bus that will take her to the hospital to get checked out. Steve follows Danny with his eyes, hoping his instincts are right and that Danny is the kind of guy he'll be able to trust with his life.

Kono laughs, drawing Steve's attention to her. 

Unable to figure out what she's laughing at—and with a sneaking suspicion it's _him_ —Steve asks, "What?"

"Nothing," Kono insists, hiding her smile behind her hand. She clears her throat, her smile fading with what looks like some effort. "Nothing at all."

Steve lets it drop. He likes Kono, and he wants to make sure he keeps liking her. After all, he has no idea if he's going to be able to go through this with someone he doesn't care for. 

"Hey, you're supposed to report to the compound today," Steve tells her. "Let's get your stuff and make that happen. We wouldn't want you to get in trouble with the brass on your first day."

"Good idea." Kono grins, reaching out and taking Steve's hand long enough to squeeze it. "I'll say goodbye to Chin and we can get going."

Steve watches Kono go, as as footsteps approach him from the other direction, he can already tell they're Danny's. "Okay, I take it back," Danny says. "I'll sign up for ASEP, if it means being able to take home girls like that."

"It's a big commitment, Danny." Steve smiles at his new colleague, but keeps his eyes serious. "It would be a different sort of family than the one you had before."

"Well, we all know how that turned out. I get to see my kid 48 hours out of every two weeks. Some family." He scoffs, shuffling his feet and leaning back next to Steve. "I take it you don't have any yet."

"Kids?" Steve asks, getting a nod from Danny. "Nah. Not yet. I mean, there was no point in settling down with someone, when I always knew ASEP was in my future."

"You'll get to spend time with the ones you have, right? Be an actual dad?" Danny squints at Steve. "Or are you just a sperm donor?"

"I spent a lot of time with my dad as a kid," Steve assures Danny. "Every day, until I was fifteen and went to the mainland for school. I want to do the same for my kids."

"Alright," Danny says, giving Steve a long, assessing look. Before he can say anything else, Kono comes back.

"Okay, boss man. Good to go," she says, winking at Danny when he snorts. 

"See ya later, Danny," Steve says, offering Kono his arm, which she takes. 

Danny calls after them, "Yeah, have fun, you two!"

Steve and Kono both laugh, and Steve feels happier than he has in months. He only wishes Freddie was still alive, so Steve could call him up and tell him about it.

~*~

"And this is Catherine's place," Steve says, leading Kono out the back front door of his house and pointing to the cabin on the left. He sweeps his hand around to indicate the other small cabins and the bigger family houses around the larger nursery building. "You can have your pick of the others."

"When am I going to meet Catherine?" Kono asks, walking up the path to the cabin on the right. It's been closed up for years, but Steve notices someone from ASEP must've come by in the last day or two to get it cleaned up and aired out. All the cobwebs are gone. 

"Catherine will be back from base tomorrow afternoon," Steve tells her, looking up at the pitch-black sky above them. He'd forgotten how dark it got out here at night. "What do you think of the place?"

Kono pushes her way into the cabin, taking a look around. "It's not as close to the beach as I would like," she says, flicking on lights here and there, "but this will do." Taking a look out of the window, Kono asks, "How many of these are there in the compound?"

Thinking back to the way he and his siblings used to run around this place, Steve says, "Twelve, I think, if you count the bigger ones behind the nursery."

"You know, this reminds me of those religious cults you see on the news," Kono tells Steve with a laugh. "You're not about to start claiming you're God, are you?"

Laughing, Steve shakes his head. "No, no. No cult, I promise." He gives Kono a conspiratorial grin. "You want to see my room from when I was a kid?"

"Sure!" Kono agrees, giving Steve her hand and letting him lead her further down the path around the nursery. He points at the nursery and says, "We had school in that building, up until high school."

"Chin says you went to Kukui High. Broke some of his football records when you were a freshman," Kono says. "Seems a little unfair to let the ASEP kids play with everyone else, if you ask me."

"It's not like we're superhuman," Steve says with a scoff, opening the house that used to be Gayle's, and turning on the lights. It's a little different from how he remembered it, but not by much. "We're not genetically engineered."

"That's a relief," Kono says, following Steve up the stairs and to the right.

Steve heads through the familiar doorway and turns on the light. "It looks exactly the same," Steve says, turning to look at everything, putting his hand on the top rung of the bunkbed ladder. He smiles sadly. "We could've had our own rooms, but Fred and I liked sharing. I got the top bunk, though, because I'm three months older."

"I'm sorry," Kono says sadly, putting her hand on Steve's shoulder.

Steve gives her a friendly smile. "Thanks." He turns and picks up one of his football trophies from the top of the dresser. "This one was Freddie's actually. He was always faster than me." He hands the trophy to Kono, who is kind enough to take it and wipe the dust from the plaque so she can read it. 

"Maybe they put something in the water here, huh?" Kono asks. "Growth hormones."

Steve laughs, picking up one of his old caps and trying it on. It barely fits. "Nah, our dad played well in high school, too. And you wouldn't be able to tell it now, but Gayle could've been a track star."

"Gayle was your mother?" Kono asks, setting the trophy back in place. 

Shaking his head, Steve says, "Not by blood. She was Freddie's. Doris is my mother. She left when I was five. I barely remember her."

"Was she some sort of athlete?" Kono sits down in Freddie's desk chair. 

Steve shakes his head. "CIA. She went back to her old life. We never heard from her again."

"That sucks."

Steve shrugs. "Mary and I had Gayle. She treated us like her own. Some ASEP kids don't even get that."

Kono gets up, stepping close to Steve and meeting his eyes. "Hey. I wouldn't do that to any kids of mine, okay? I'm in this for the long haul."

"Okay," Steve replies, letting out a relieved breath. He leans a little closer to Kono, and he's not that surprised when she kisses him. 

It's a fairly chaste kiss, but it makes Steve feel better. More settled, maybe. He finds himself smiling. Having Kono around is going to be great. 

~*~

Sleeping on base is never the same as sleeping at home, even if Catherine's new home still feels unfamiliar. Maybe once Catherine is more familiar with the roads through Honolulu between Pearl and the McGarrett compound, she'll feel comfortable driving through them after being on duty for a 24 hour shift. Of course, Commander Lennox was helpful to point out that as soon as she gets pregnant, she won't be scheduled for long shifts.

Catherine spends the drive home visualizing how to rip the mustache off his face.

After getting through security at the gate, Catherine pulls up to the garage, and notices a small red car parked in the spot she's been using. Confused and annoyed, Catherine parks on the other side of Steve's truck.

Hoping the presence of Steve's truck means that he's home, Catherine heads straight for his house. She's almost to the door when a woman's voice behind her says, "Oh, it's locked."

Catherine tries not to show how startled she is as she turns around. The woman is standing in the pathway leading to the cabin next to Steve's house, wearing shorts and a bikini top, like she was tanning or about to go surfing or something. Or maybe just showing off her tall, thin body in some sort of power move.

If it is a power move, Catherine sees no evidence on her open, almost unsure face. She's pretty there, too, with Asian features that remind Catherine she's heard ASEP has been looking to diversify in recent years.

"Hey," Catherine says, smiling tentatively, and not mentioning the fact that she has a key to Steve's place that she could use if she wanted to. "Kono, right?"

She nods. "Yeah. And you're Catherine Rollins?"

Catherine nods, not sure what the protocol is for this sort of introduction. She's got a feeling Kono doesn't either. Too tired to put up with any beating around the bush, Catherine asks, "So, what generation are you? How long have you been in for?"

Kono furrows her brow. "I— I'm a surfer. Or I _was_." She looks away, sad or ashamed.

Suddenly the bikini top makes sense, as does the faint darker line of skin on Kono's right knee. Catherine gestures toward the scar and asks, "ASEP pay for your surgery?"

"Something like that," Kono replies. She points to Catherine's BDUs. "You're military, I'm assuming?"

Catherine gives a short, self-conscious chuckle. "Yeah. Navy. Second generation ASEP, too."

"Oh," Kono says, shifting her feet. "So you know how this is supposed to work?"

"The program?" Catherine asks by way of clarification. At Kono's nod, she continues, "Yeah, I guess. I mean, I know how my family worked. I've met a lot of other ASEP kids in the service."

"And they were okay?" Kono asks, swinging her arms at her sides. "Like, not messed up or weird or anything?"

Catherine can't help but laugh. "Not overall, no. But…" She gives Kono a friendly smile. "I do have some pretty wild stories about a few of the people I've met. You want some coffee? I could give you the low-down." Catherine points over to her cabin.

Kono's body slumps a little as she lets out a loud breath. "Yes. Thank you. I haven't been in this far over my head since I was twelve and tried to surf 10-footers at Pipeline the first time."

Catherine knows just enough about surfing to be impressed. "So, you were a surfer?" she asks as they walk toward her cabin. "Professionally?"

"Yeah," Kono replies, following Catherine, no sign of a limp or anything to go along with her scar.

Giving Kono the kindest smile she can, Catherine says, "Oh, you must have a ton of great stories about that."

With a laugh, Kono nods and follows Catherine inside. "Oh, yes. _Lots_ of stories."

~*~

Steve gets back from Five-0 headquarters at the end of the next day, Danny dropping him off and Private Suarez opening the gate for him. 

"Can you tell me who's already here?" Steve asks Suarez.

"Lieutenant Rollins and Miss Kalakaua are both on the premises, sir." Suarez gives Steve an encouraging smile. 

"Thank you," Steve replies. Maybe he should've asked his dad how to handle this part of the whole situation. Sure, it's not exactly his job to make sure everyone in the compound gets along with each other, but he knows it's in his best interest not to do anything that will make the situation worse.

Steve tries to ready himself for anything he might find. He doesn't expect his house to be empty. Or Kono's for that matter. Confused, Steve heads toward the cabin Catherine claimed. She hasn't spent any time there, as far as Steve can tell, but the lights are on. He knocks on the door before letting himself in. "Catherine?"

"We're in here," Catherine calls from further inside. 

Steve finds both Catherine and Kono sitting at Catherine's little table, mugs in their hands. "Hey," Steve says with a careful smile. "I see you two have met."

Her smile almost too broad, Catherine says, "Kono's been telling me stories about her time on the professional surfing circuit. They're really funny."

Kono grins and nods. She holds up her mug. "You want some coffee?"

"Uh, no," Steve replies, shaking his head slowly. "Thanks." He points back and forth between Kono and Catherine. "I'm glad you two met." He doesn't mention how glad he is that they're getting along.

"So are you going to join us, or are you going to stand there catching flies with your mouth?" Catherine asks. 

Suddenly, Steve remembers how many stories Catherine knows about him, from when they served on the Enterprise together. "Nah, I'm gonna go back to mine. Get some dinner, and then crash."

"If that's what you want," Catherine says, setting down her mug. She stands up and approaches Steve. "Can I come by later?" she asks quietly.

"Sure," Steve says, noticing Kono watching them. "We'll have to figure out some sort of schedule, or something. So everyone's on the same page."

"It works best if we try every day," Catherine insists quietly. "And extra times during the right week. Can you handle that, sailor?"

Steve swallows against his suddenly dry throat. "Y-yeah. Okay. Just let me know when you need me." He raises his voice so Kono can tell he's talking to her, even though they've agreed between the two of them it's going to be awhile before they start trying. "Both of you, just let me know. We'll work something out."

Steve makes his escape and shakes his head at himself. He really hopes the program doesn't send anyone else anytime soon. He's pretty sure trying to juggle two women is going to give him grey hair as it is.


	2. October/November 2010

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's family starts to coalesce around him, and he looks into an old case for his father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are warnings for this chapter, which you can find in the end notes as they are spoilery.

Taking a sip of his beer, Steve looks over at Danny and breaks the good news. "Catherine's pregnant."

"Well, that didn't take long, did it?" Danny replies with a laugh. He leans closer to Steve and offers his bottle for a toast. "Mazel tov!"

Steve laughs, looking out from the upper lanai over the compound, and the ocean a few miles beyond. "Thanks. Honestly, I didn't think it would happen this fast either. It hasn't even been a month since I've been home."

"What? Are you getting cold feet?" Danny asks, poking at Steve's leg with his foot. "You've got nine months to get used to the idea."

"That's true," Steve replies with a nervous laugh. "And we'll have help, figuring out how to take care of the thing."

"Well," Danny says, sitting back and raising his hand. "I have been there, done that, so if you ever need a little assistance, I am here, my friend."

Steve can honestly say he's touched. "Thanks, buddy."

"No problem." Danny squints out at the water, even though the sun is behind them. After a moment, he asks, "How're things going with you and Kono?"

Steve shrugs. "We haven't been _you know_. I want her to graduate from the academy first."

"Is that going to be weird?" Danny asks. "Working with someone you're sleeping with?"

"People do it all the time. Besides, it's not like Kono's my girlfriend."

Danny does one of his silent "oh"s and nods. "And Catherine, she's not your girlfriend either, even though you've known her a long time, and she came here to be with you…"

Steve's not sure what Danny's getting at. "We're more like friends with benefits."

Furrowing his brow, Danny takes a long look at Steve. "Is there even one romantic bone in your body? Don't you miss it? Being in love with someone? Not being able to think about anything but them all day?"

"Do people actually do that?" Steve asks, completely seriously. "How would you get anything done?"

"You don't," Danny replies with an incredulous laugh. "You've never turned into a bumbling idiot after you met someone and started getting to know them?" Danny gasps and points at Steve. "Have you never been in love?"

"Never saw the point," Steve says, frowning at Danny. "Why are you so upset? What does it matter if I've never been in love?"

"It just," Danny says, pausing to lean over and put his hand on Steve's wrist, "it explains so much!" Danny breaks into a peal of laughter, and Steve shoves him away.

"You're such an asshole," Steve insists, though he's laughing too. "I've got a job to do, Danny. If I fell in love with someone, I wouldn't be able to do it."

Rolling his eyes, Danny says, "That's such a cop out. You, my friend, are _afraid_ of relationships."

"Yeah, well look how your marriage turned out," Steve shoots back. "Maybe I've got the right idea."

With a loud scoff, Danny says, "It's pointless to argue with you."

"That just means you know you're losing." Steve grins, hoping to lessen the blow of his words a little bit.

Danny laughs, which is a good sign. "Yeah, okay, super soldier. Whatever you say."

After a few minutes thinking over the conversation and staring out at the water, Steve asks, "It can't be that good, right? Being in love?"

"It has its ups and downs," Danny replies, finishing up his beer and setting it down on the table between them. "But tell me why a million love songs exist if it's not that good."

"Huh," Steve says, because he has to admit, Danny's got a point. Steve wonders if when he went through Naval training and SEAL training if the ability to love was something they trained out of him. Except, he loved Freddie, he loves his dad, and his brother and sisters. Looking over, Steve realizes he might just love Danny. Hell, he loves Kono and Catherine, too. Just not in that way Danny's describing.

Maybe Steve is just broken.

There's a knock at the open bedroom door behind Steve, and he calls back, "Yeah? Come on in."

Kono comes out to the lanai, three beers in her hands. "Thought I might find you two out here," she says, handing one of the beers to Danny when he holds his hand out for it. "Chin told me about the day you guys had." She sets the second beer next to Steve and keeps the third for herself.

"Still sure you want to join the team?" Danny asks, taking a long pull of the beer and sighing.

Kono leans against the balcony railing and looks out over the city, and the ocean below. "If it means protecting this place from the people trying to hurt it," she turns toward them and smiles,"then hell yeah."

"My kinda woman," Danny says, using his beer to toast in Kono's direction. "What do you say when you're done with this schmuck," he gestures toward Steve, "you give me a call, huh?"

"Haha, nice try, Danny," Kono replies, rolling her eyes.

Danny kicks Steve again. "You hear that? I'm chopped liver compared to you."

"You're not endorsed by the Armed Services with cash incentives," Kono says with a laugh. "However, when it comes to actual game, you definitely have McGarrett beat."

"Ouch!" Steve cries, throwing Kono a wounded look. "He's got better _game_?"

Kono leans forward and pushes at Steve's knee. "Totally. Have you seen his ex-wife?"

"No, I haven't," Steve says, giving Danny a look. "Why? Should I have seen your ex-wife?"

Danny shrugs, but Kono answers, "She's really pretty. Like _really_ pretty."

Frowning at Kono, Danny asks, "What, do you want her number or something? I know on good authority she's not as averse to cheating on her husbands as she claims to be."

"Ooh, cold!" Kono says with a laugh, pushing away from the balcony. She sits on Danny's lap without even asking first. She pets his head and says, "Poor Danny. She cheated on you?"

"Y-yeah," Danny stammers obviously flustered to have Kono in his lap like this. "But you know what? I'm over it. I'm really, really…" Danny looks up at Kono and fits his hands around her waist. The sight makes Steve's heart pound in his ears. "I swear to God, woman, you're killing me here." He glances over at Steve, and then does a double take before chuckling. "And would you look at that? You're making Steven jealous."

Steve tries to rid his face of whatever expression gave Danny that idea, and scoffs. "I'm not jealous."

Speaking to Kono, Danny says, "Steve likes to pretend he's an army robot without feelings."

" _Navy_ , Danny!" Steve cries, tossing a bottle cap at the two of them. "Navy robot." 

Danny and Kono both laugh, and Steve can't help but laugh, too. He trusts that neither one of them would hurt him on purpose. Kono leans her head against the top of Danny's head, and suddenly they look much more friendly than romantic. Steve's heartbeat goes back to normal and he settles back into his chair. 

He wonders if maybe this is just what friendship looks like outside the Navy. It's kind of nice.

~*~

Later that night, after Danny has crashed on the couch and Kono's gone back to her cabin, Catherine lets herself into Steve's room. "Hey," she says with a soft smile, closing the door behind her.

"Hey," he says, setting aside his book and sitting up in bed. "How're you feeling? You missed Danny and Kono."

"I'm okay." Catherine rounds the bed and slips into what's quickly becoming her side, despite Steve's paltry efforts to the contrary. "And I saw Danny sacked out on the couch. Drunk, I'm assuming? Doesn't look like I would've been able to participate, anyway."

With a chuckle, Steve pulls Catherine closer. "We had a rough day at work. It called for a few beers. Thanks for your help with the satellite, by the way."

Catherine smirks and brushes her nose across Steve's. "I seem to remember something about you owing me a favor." She raises her eyebrows and gives Steve a look. 

"What? You want to collect right now?" Steve throws back the covers and moves to hover over Catherine. "Is that what you're saying?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," she says with a wicked grin. 

Steve laughs and kisses her, lowering his hips between her legs. "I'm pretty sure I know how you want to collect."

"What can I say, McGarrett?" She kisses him again. "You're kind of addictive. I don't know how Kono can stand only having you once a week."

Steve kisses Catherine and doesn't mention the fact that he and Kono haven't actually slept together yet. He nips his way down Catherine's body, stopping at her navel, and kissing just under it.

"How's the little bean today?" he asks, smiling up at Catherine.

"Seems all right," Catherine tells him, knocking her thigh lightly against his ribs. "Mostly I just feel tired."

"Hmm," Steve replies, giving her belly another kiss. He knows this was the whole point of the program, to have kids, but it's still difficult to wrap his brain around the fact that it's actually happening. 

"What do you think we should name it?" Steve looks up at Catherine. "Any thoughts?"

"Other than 'I'd like you to hurry up,' you mean?" Catherine nudges Steve in the ribs again. 

With a laugh, Steve says, "Okay, okay. We'll talk about it some other time." 

As Steve makes his way further down, he mentions, "Oh, and you might want to keep it down, unless you don't mind Danny hearing you."

A sly smirk on her lips, Catherine says, "How well I keep it under control is up to you, sailor."

Steve's cock twitches in his boxers and he chuckles, breathing in Catherine's scent. It's definitely going to be strange doing this with someone else, even someone he likes as much as Kono. He hopes the issue doesn't come up for a long, long time.

~*~

Catherine is walking from the canteen back to her office on base, the Hawaii sun hot above her, when she realizes her lower belly aches. She makes sure to get a long drink of water, and goes back to work, glad for once that Commander Lennox scheduled her for only a half day.

On the drive home, the pain gets a little more intense. The obstetrician from ASEP, who did Catherine's exam and blood test three weeks ago told her she might have some pain as the baby started growing. That must be what it is.

When she gets home, Kono's little red car is parked in the car port, but Steve's truck is gone. Catherine parks, and when she gets out of her car, she feels dizzy. She looks over at her cabin, and really doesn't feel like being alone, so she turns toward Kono's place and knocks on the door.

The dull ache has spread to Catherine's lower back, so she braces herself on the wall of Kono's cabin and digs the knuckles of her other hand into the muscles there. It doesn't help.

"Hey," Kono says as she opens the door, the smile quickly falling from her face. "Are you okay?"

To her surprise, Catherine starts crying. "No? I guess?" she says through the tears. "I feel like something's wrong, but I don't know what."

"Come here," Kono says, pulling Catherine into a hug.

Catherine lets herself be hugged. It's weird, because she and Kono haven't been that close yet, but the hug feels like something Catherine needs, so she allows it. Sniffing, she asks, "Will you come stay with me? Just until Steve comes home? I can't—" She huffs, trying to find the right words. "I don't want to be alone."

"Yeah, of course," Kono says, her eyes wide as she pulls out of the hug and steps over the threshold, pulling the door closed behind her. "Do you think this is the pregnancy?"

"Probably," Catherine replies, but the muscles in her lower belly give a jolt. "There's this pain that's getting worse."

"Okay, we're getting you in bed and calling the doctor," Kono says, taking Catherine by the elbow and leading her down the short path to her own cabin. 

As they walk, Catherine feels like the ground is shifting under her feet. It almost distracts her from the suddenly wet feeling between her legs. "Shit," she says.

"What?" Kono asks, pushing open the door to Catherine's cabin. 

Stumbling toward her bathroom, Catherine calls over her shoulder, "I think I'm bleeding."

"Shit," Kono calls after her as Catherine locks herself in the bathroom. 

Pushing down her pants, Catherine quickly finds that she was right. There's bright red blood everywhere. She sits down on the toilet and puts her head in her hands, staring down at the blood, her pulse racing. This can only mean one thing.

She's losing the baby.

A few minutes later, there's a soft knock at the door. Kono asks, "Catherine? Do you want me to call Steve?"

_Oh, God, Steve!_ He's going to be so disappointed. He's been so happy since they found out. Catherine can't stand the thought of what his face is going to look like when he finds out.

"No!" Catherine calls through the door. "No, maybe it's nothing."

Catherine doesn't believe for a second that her baby is still alive, but if she can put off telling Steve, even just for a few hours, maybe she'll be better prepared for it. 

"Catherine…" Kono says, like she doesn't believe it either.

"Look, we can go to the doctor, okay?" Catherine calls out, standing up and having to catch herself on the counter when her vision goes black. "But we're not calling Steve!"

"Okay," Kono calls back.

Wiping tears out of her eyes, Catherine strips off her blood-stained clothes and kicks them into a corner of the bathroom. She wraps a beach towel around herself and opens the door. Her throat feeling swollen and raw, Catherine can't meet Kono's eyes as she says, "I need new clothes. I can't go to the doctor without clean clothes." A sob escapes Catherine's raw throat, and Kono's pulling her close again.

"It's okay," Kono says, stroking her hand through Catherine's hair. "Everything's going to be okay."

Catherine wants to say that Kono can't possibly know that. She can feel the blood dripping down the inside of her leg. _Nothing_ feels okay.

~*~

"Clear," Steve says as he sweeps the room, Danny in the corner of his eye to the right, Chin behind them. He moves onto the next room, and sees a gun come around the corner. "Five-0!" Steve calls out, getting ready to fire if need be. "Drop it!"

The owner of the gun shoots it, and Steve fires his weapon without hesitation, hitting the shooter in the arm. The gun drops, and Steve rushes forward, Chin right behind him, covering him as he makes sure the perp is down and unarmed. "It's Perkins," Steve tells Chin, getting their suspect into cuffs. 

"The rest of the house is clear," Danny says as he joins them, helping Steve get Perkins on his feet. "C'mon. We've got some questions for you."

Steve's phone rings, so he lets Danny and Chin take Perkins out of the house as he answers it. "McGarrett."

"Commander," says a professional-sounding voice. "This is Captain Kelso, from ASEP."

"Aw, _another_ placement? Already?" Steve asks. "Come on, man. I'm not actually a machine, despite what some of my friends seem to think."

"No, sir," Kelso says. "I'm calling to inform you that Lieutenant Catherine Rollins has been admitted to Tripler."

"What?" Steve asks, walking quickly toward the door. "What happened? Was there an accident on base?"

"No, no," Kelso says, his voice _almost_ reassuring. "She appears to be suffering a miscarriage. She should be alright, under her doctor's care, but it is our policy to inform partners under these sorts of circ—"

"Yeah, yes," Steve cuts him off, snapping his fingers to get Danny's attention. "Thanks for calling. I'm headed there now. Tripler, you said?"

"Yes, that's right."

Steve hangs up before Captain Kelso can give him any more useless information. "Chin, you take Perkins to HPD, get him booked. Danny, get me to Tripler, alright?"

"Yeah, man," Danny says, catching Steve by the arm and looking him in the eye, concern all over his face. "What's going on? What is it?"

"Catherine's losing the baby," Steve says, noticing the way his heart seems to be beating too damn hard in his chest. "She's— I gotta get over there…"

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Danny says, pulling Steve toward the Camaro. "Gimme the keys."

Steve's hands shake as he pulls the keys out of his pocket and tosses them to Danny.

Steve's anxious in the passenger seat, and a little car sick as Danny weaves through traffic with the sirens going. "You know, they tell us the risks, upfront. Somehow I just never thought…"

"Yeah, I know, buddy," Danny says, glancing at Steve only briefly. "You know, Rachel had a miscarriage, after Grace."

"Yeah?" Steve asks, somehow mollified a little bit, and touched at the fact Danny's willing to share this with him. "What happened?"

Danny shrugs. "It wasn't exactly planned," he says. "Grace was still just a baby herself, and we couldn't exactly afford two kids, but we were gonna make it work."

Danny makes a turn toward the hospital and sighs. "We knew she was pregnant for only three weeks before she lost the kid. Scared me half to death with all the blood. Rachel was hardly even phased."

Swallowing nervously, Steve asks, "How much blood?"

"Don't know, really. The whole process took a few days, and I wasn't exactly privy to most of it." He makes a face and adds, "From what I saw, more like getting shot in the arm than getting shot in the gut, you know?"

"Yeah," Steve replies, feeling sick at the memory of Freddie holding his hand to the bullet wound in his stomach, blood gushing out around it. "I know exactly what you mean."

Danny pulls up to the front entrance of the hospital. "Here," he says, stopping the car. "You go in and find her. I'll get some good coffee, maybe something to eat. Find you in a bit, hey?"

"Yeah, thanks, Danno," Steve says, squeezing Danny's arm and meeting his eye for just a second longer than he really wants to spend before rushing to go find Catherine. It seems important that Danny knows how much Steve appreciates him.

~*~

Steve finds Catherine in a curtained-off area of the ER, and he's surprised to see Kono sitting with her, holding her hand. "Hey," he says gently, approaching the bed. "I came as soon as I heard."

Catherine looks at Steve over her shoulder, her eyes red-rimmed and watery. She doesn't say anything before turning away again. Her shoulders shake, and Steve wants nothing more than to hold her close, but he's not sure he's welcome. 

He looks up at Kono, who shrugs at him sadly and says, "The doctor said there's nothing anyone could have done. This just happens sometimes." Steve thinks Kono looks scared. He wonders if she's rethinking the program entirely, now that the risks aren't just on paper anymore.

Steve stands there feeling helpless, which is an odd sensation for him. In almost every single situation he's come across, there was some sort of solution, some way to resolve things. Steve had to leave Freddie in North Korea, but he got Anton Hesse behind bars. He brought down the organization that helped Victor Hesse get onto Oahu.

He's still working on tracking down the source of corruption John put him onto.

But this? Here?

"D-do you need anything?" he asks, addressing Catherine, but meeting Kono's eyes.

Steve watches the back of Catherine's head as she shakes it, Kono reinforcing the answer with a shake of her own head.

"Is it okay if I stay?" Steve asks, hating the way Catherine won't even look at him.

She's still for a moment, and then shakes her head again. 

Steve freezes in place. Catherine doesn't even want him in the room. Does she think this is his fault somehow? Maybe it is Steve's fault. Maybe there was something he should've done to prevent this.

"Steve," Kono says, giving him an encouraging nod. "Why don't you go wait outside? I'll stay here."

"Yeah, okay," Steve says, backing out of the curtained-off area. "I'll be right in the waiting room if you need anything."

Kono gives Steve a friendly nod, and Steve hesitates again until she waves him away. It doesn't take long to find the waiting room. He takes a seat furthest away from anyone else, and drops his head into his hands.

Ten minutes later, that's where Danny finds him. "What's going on?" Danny asks, handing Steve a paper cup of coffee. Steve takes the cup, but doesn't drink it, his stomach knotted too tightly to welcome it. "Where's Catherine?"

"Back in there," Steve says, pointing to the treatment area of the ER. "She doesn't want me with her."

"So you left her _alone_?" Danny drops down into the chair next to Steve's.

"Yes, Danny, because I'm an idiot," Steve shoots back, setting his cup aside and leaning back in his chair. "Kono's with her."

Danny seems a little mollified by that information. "Oh."

After a moment, Danny hooks his hand on Steve's shoulder. "Hey. It's gonna be okay, buddy."

"Yeah, maybe." If this scares Catherine off, if it makes her break out of her contract and leave him, Steve doesn't know what he's going to do. How is he going to get through this without her? 

Heavy-sounding high heels click across the linoleum toward Steve, and he looks up to see a woman in an Army uniform walking toward him. "Commander McGarrett," she says, offering him her hand.

Steve shakes it, "Yeah." Before he can stand up to properly greet her, she sits down in the chair across from his. 

"Corporal Whitesides, from ASEP," she says, by way of introduction. "We've spoken on the phone previously."

"Right," Steve says, shooting Danny a glance and settling back into his chair. "You're here about what happened?"

"I am," she replies with a somber smile. "I just want to assure you that although this is the first time either you or Lieutenant Rollins has experienced a pregnancy loss, it is an _extremely_ common occurrence."

"So get right back on the horse, huh?" Danny says, his tone more than a little hostile. 

Whitesides juts out her lower jaw and gives Danny a cold look. "I was going to say, we have counseling available if you'd like to take advantage of it."

Steve can't help but chuckle. The Navy only briefly mentioned grief counseling after Freddie died, but after the death of what barely qualified as his child, ASEP is all over it? Steve thinks maybe Danny is right to be a little cynical. ASEP's main objective is to make sure Steve and his partners keep making the next generation of soldiers. He has to keep that in mind. 

"Yeah, maybe," Steve says to Whitesides. "It seems like Catherine might need those services more than I do, so maybe you should talk to her."

"We will be," Whitesides insists. "Don't worry about it, Commander. Pregnancy and child loss supportive care is part of what we at ASEP do."

"Gotta keep the factory runnin'!" a loud voice says from Steve's left. One of the people waiting is a white man in his late 40s, maybe early 50s. "You _people_ and your ASEP _bullshit_! Government-funded prostitution, if you ask me. Child slavery! All in the name of what? Freedom! Hah!"

Danny's on his feet and hovering over the man before Steve, or Whitesides can react. His voice is serious, and low, but Steve can still make out what Danny says. "Look here, sir. Now, I'm actually inclined to agree with you on a lot of what you just said, but my friend over there just lost a _child_. A _baby_. Do you have any idea what that's like?"

The man, his eyes wide with fear, shakes his head. 

"Yeah, I didn't think so," Danny replies. "There is a time, and a place, sir. So, if you don't kindly take your ass to the other side of this room and leave my friend alone, I'm going to take you through there," he points to the ER ward, "I'm going to find a suture kit, and I'm going to sew your fucking mouth shut myself. You got me, friend?"

The man nods vigorously and as soon as Danny gives him an inch, he takes the whole mile and flees like the hounds of hell are on his ass. 

Coming back to his seat, Danny nods at Whitesides and says, "Sorry about the language, ma'am."

Whitesides chuckles and shakes her head. "Not a problem, Detective Williams."

It doesn't escape Steve's notice that Whitesides knows Danny's name without having been introduced to him. It's her job to know about Steve's well being, and he's sure she or her bosses would've run a background check on both Danny and Chin when he started working with them. It's Steve's job to protect this island from those who would want to harm it. It's Whitesides's job to protect ASEP's investment in Steve and his soon-to-be family.

"Please, call my direct number if you want to be put in touch with a counselor," Whitesides says, standing and handing Steve her card. "We're always here to help."

"Yeah, okay," Steve says, tucking the card into his pocket. "Thanks."

Corporal Whitesides's heels click loudly as she walks toward the ER ward. 

"Does she strike you as just the tiniest bit scary?" Danny asks once Whitesides is out of the room. 

"Her?" Steve asks with a snort. "You're the one who just threatened to sew a guy's mouth shut."

"Too much?" Danny asks, twisting up his face and squinting at Steve. "Because I kinda felt like maybe it was too much."

"Nah," Steve replies, leaning his head back against the seat and rolling it to the side so he can see Danny. "Thanks, bud. Really."

"I still feel like kids should be wanted by their parents, not by the government," Danny says, leaning back as well. "But you're welcome."

~*~

The drive back home from the hospital is silent, and painful. Catherine still won't talk to Steve, preferring to lean on Kono for support. Steve kind of wishes he hadn't told Danny to go home, because he's driving Kono's car home through the extremely early morning Honolulu traffic, with Catherine and Kono sitting in the back seat. Steve feels almost worse than alone. 

He pulls into the compound, waving hello to Private Werner at the gatehouse, and parks in Kono's spot. Catherine's out of the car and headed to her cabin before Steve can even finish turning off the engine. 

Getting out of the car, Steve stops Kono with a hand around her wrist. "You don't have to. You could get some sleep. I'll stay up if she needs anything."

Kono smiles sleepily. "Nah, it's okay. I can crash on her couch. She doesn't really want to see you right now."

"Why not?" Steve asks, knowing he's going to sit and stew over the situation if he doesn't get an answer. "Did she say why not?"

"Not in so many words," Kono insists. "But I think she feels like she let you down."

"That's not—" Steve tries to say, unable to think of the right words. 

"Yeah, I know," Kono insists. "Just give her some time to work through this. It'll be okay."

"Thank you," Steve says, pulling Kono into a hug. "For everything. You shouldn't have to do this."

"You're welcome," Kono replies with a tired smile. 

Steve goes back to his bed, which feels empty without Catherine, and stares at the ceiling for hours without sleeping. 

~*~

Steve tries to talk to Catherine the next morning, but she sends Kono out with the message that she's fine, but still not up to talking. He figures if Catherine doesn't want him there, he might as well go to work, until he gets a call from the Governor ordering him to take at least a day to "process the news". Steve has no illusions that those words didn't come to her via ASEP, and that she won't find out if he heads to HQ. He stays home, taking a run on his treadmill.

Eventually, he pulls out some of the pieces of evidence his father has transferred to him piecemeal over their last few get-togethers. He's been keeping everything in the red toolbox John handed him with the largest set of items stashed under the upper tray. Most of the evidence centers around a car bomb set off outside this very compound, shortly after Steve and Freddie left for the mainland.

Steve heard about the bomb when it happened, mostly from Malia and Peter, but as no one was injured in the blast, and nothing else happened afterward, it quickly slipped his mind. 

Mid-morning, Danny shows up, a paper bag of malasadas clutched in his hand. "Hey, that the stuff your dad gave you?" he asks, mouth still full and powdered sugar dusting his tie.

"Yeah," Steve replies, spreading out the pictures of the car bomb, searching for any inconsistencies between them and the report HPD bomb squad filed. Something about it just seems off. "I thought I might look to see if he has any clues to who this Dragon guy is."

Danny takes up one of the pictures. "Hey, this is the road outside," he says, squinting at the picture. "Someone bombed this place?"

"Yeah, almost twenty years ago," Steve says, taking the picture from Danny and wiping off a few specks of sugar away. "The investigators decided it was CLF activists trying to scare ASEP into shutting down the program. Made a couple of arrests and everything."

"But the pictures are still in your file," Danny points out, "which means your dad thinks it was something more."

Steve nods. "I was away at school when it happened, and I always got the impression that it wasn't a big deal. Now," he shuffles through the photographs, "I'm not so sure."

"So are you thinking some other sort of message, or an attempted attack? The blast didn't take down the wall or anything," Danny points to one of the photographs, the white mortar wall of the compound singed, but obviously still intact. 

Suddenly, Steve puts his finger on what's bothering him about the pictures. "This blast was targeted inward," he says, turning some of the pictures to get a better look at the blast trajectories. "If you were trying to use the car as a bomb, the explosives would've been directed toward the wall. These were directed more at—at the driver's seat."

Frowning, Danny leans in closer to the picture Steve's looking at asks, "Any remains found in the car?"

"Not according to any of the reports," Steve replies, shaking his head and looking over to meet Danny's eyes. 

"Who'd the car belong to?" Danny asks, his brow furrowed as he looks down at the photo.

Distracted for a moment by how close he and Danny are leaning together, Steve clears his throat. "Uh, stolen the day before, I think. If I'm remembering right."

Danny shuffles through the papers, coming upon one with a satisfied grunt. "Here. Yeah, rental car stolen from a lot in downtown Honolulu. Rented out to tourists with airtight alibis." "Untraceable car," Steve says, leaning on his elbows and looking up at Danny. "Blast directed inward, but no body. Parked right outside an ASEP compound. What are we thinking?"

"Failed murder attempt," Danny puts forward, setting his hand on Steve's shoulder as he looks over the evidence. "Or maybe just a message. 'Get in line or this could happen to you.'"

"Yeah, but who would the message be for?" Steve asks, leaning closer. "My dad? He was a detective at the time. I don't think he'd even started looking into the..." Steve makes a gesture that he hopes Danny interprets as "widespread corruption throughout the island and maybe further".

"Some random criminal he pissed off?" Danny asks, and Steve can't help but watch the way his lips move. "Puts a guy in jail, guy's buddies blow up a car outside your dad's house to scare him a little?"

"Maybe," Steve says softly, somehow unable to look away from Danny.

Danny catches Steve staring, but Steve is frozen in place, unsure of why he can't just _move_. Eyes growing wider, Danny asks softly, "Steve?"

Steve moves his mouth, trying to say something. He's not sure how to explain his behavior, or maybe if he shouldn't just change the topic, because he can't explain his behavior. Before he can stutter anything out, a voice behind Steve says, "Hey."

Turning, Steve sees Catherine standing at the front door. He hadn't even heard her open it, he was so focused on D—on the _case_. He was focused on the case.

But now Catherine is here, and she's talking to _him_ , so Steve puts the weird moment with Danny behind him and goes toward her. He stops short of taking her into his arms, not quite sure how welcome he'll be. "Hey. How are you? Can I get you anything? What's going on?"

Wiping a tear away from just under her eye and giving a brave laugh, Catherine reaches out, putting her hand on Steve's arm. "I'm...getting there," she admits. Before Steve can ask anything else, she nods at the table behind him. "What are you working on?"

"My father's evidence," Steve replies, following Catherine as she approaches the pictures spread around the table. Why didn't he think of this before? Of course she needs something to work on, to keep her mind off of things. "We think someone set off this car bomb to send a message."

Catherine takes the pictures and shuffles through them, frowning at them. Eventually, she shakes her head. "No, this was a targeted attack. Look at the blast damage here."

"All the concussive force is aimed at the driver, yeah," Steve agrees.

"But no body." Danny smiles at Catherine, but it's not one of his normal smiles, and Steve can't quite figure it out. 

Turning the pictures again, Catherine points to a dark shadow on the pavement in one of them. "Looks like the mouse got the cheese, but escaped the trap."

Steve leans closer and squints at the shadow. "Is that blood?"

"There's no mention of blood in any of the reports." Danny flips through the pages of the case file. 

Catherine takes a sharp breath, and for a moment Steve thinks she's about to say something. When she shakes her head instead, he starts to wonder if maybe she's in pain.

"Cath?" he asks, reaching for her, but still not sure if he's allowed to touch.

Shaking her head again, Catherine waves him off. "No, I'm fine. It's just I remembered something _classified_."

"Classified?" Danny asks, crossing his arms and looking at Catherine like he really wants to start interrogating her. "How classified are we talking?"

Catherine smirks. "Definitely court-martial territory. Maybe even treason."

"So, don't tell us," Steve insists, sitting on the table so he can see both Catherine and Danny. "But maybe Danny and I could have a conversation and work it out ourselves."

"I wouldn't be able to stop you," Catherine says with a nod, pulling out one of the chairs and sitting down. 

"So, Catherine knows, in general, what a car bomb meant to kill the driver looks like," Steve says to Danny, who raises his eyebrows and nods.

"That means she's seen one before," Danny guesses, looking to Catherine, who looks away, but smirks again.

Steve picks up the conversation, saying, "But it's classified, which means either it had to do with a military op that has yet to be disclosed, or has something to do with your time in Naval Intelligence."

"Murder by car bomb sounds a lot more like a spy thing than a war thing," Danny points out, at which Catherine shifts in her seat and clears her throat.

"Intelligence, then," Steve guesses, looking over the photos. "If this bomb was meant for someone in the intelligence community, any record of the victim would've been scrubbed from the official report."

Picking up the photo with the blood smear in it, Danny asks, "But was the victim here one of ours, or one of theirs?"

"There's a reason ASEP homes are all fortified," Catherine points out. "All throughout the Cold War, Russian spies latched onto the idea that we had some sort of secret serum for producing super soldiers. You remember hearing stories about those kids who got kidnapped from an ASEP home in the early '70s? There's a lot of theories that they were taken to Russia, so they could start their own breeding program."

"I thought that was a conspiracy theory." Danny sighs and sets down the photo in his hand. "I mean, yeah. Some ASEP kids have gotten kidnapped, but those were all by activists who wanted to raise them as normal kids."

"Not all of them," Steve corrects, remembering the story Warren Kettridge told him when they were classmates at Annapolis. His little sister had been snatched during a family outing by a pervert who wanted to use her to make his own private army of sons. Steve shakes his head at the memory of Kettridge's haunted expression.

"If the victim was a foreign agent trying to get into the compound," Catherine says, leaning forward, one hand resting on her lower belly in a way Steve really doesn't like, "why would the bomber take them out here? If the objective was to protect the kids, there are a million other ways to do so that don't put ASEP assets in danger."

Danny wordlessly mouths, "Assets?" at Steve, but Catherine doesn't seem to notice.

"You're saying the victim was probably one of ours." Steve feels the blood drain from his face. "Someone in the Intelligence community who made a habit of parking outside the compound. Probably someone who was watching over the kids."

"You know someone like that?" Danny asks, his gaze intense as he studies Steve's face.

Steve looks away. "Yeah, maybe. Let me talk to my dad before I make any wild guesses."

"Sounds good." Danny looks back and forth between Steve and Catherine before saying, "I'm gonna head back to HQ. Maybe ask Chin if he's heard anything. Gimme a call if you need anything."

"Yeah, thanks, Danny," Steve says, watching Danny leave and wishing he wasn't going. He's left alone with Catherine, not quite sure what to say. Eventually he goes with, "You haven't let me down, you know."

Catherine nods for a long moment, and Steve can't help but go to her. He crouches down and rests an arm on her leg, looking up at her.

"It'll be okay. We'll try again," he insists, smiling when she reaches out and runs a hand through his hair.

"Yeah," she says, pulling Steve up into a hug and hooking her chin against his shoulder. "We'll try again."

~*~

Danny drives away from Steve's house feeling frustrated. The problem is, he's not quite sure _why_ he's feeling this way. Steve's bombing case is interesting, if cold, and Catherine's observations have given them a few good leads to follow. 

Maybe he's just frustrated that his efforts to cheer up Steve were interrupted by Catherine. It's her home. She has every right to see Steve at home whenever she wants. Plus, she's just been through a horrible experience. If memory serves, she's likely _still_ going through it, even if she's well enough to be home from the hospital.

And it's not like Danny _hates_ Catherine. The few times she's been around at the same time as Danny, he's found himself liking her company a lot. 

Danny thinks it must be his overdeveloped sense of loyalty. Something having to do with how Catherine hurt Steve, and Steve is Danny's friend, so Danny's upset about Catherine, even though this is absolutely none of her fault.

As he parks his car at HQ, Danny takes out his wallet, and from there slips out a business card. It was given to him by his Captain his first day at HPD, after he got into a bit of an argument with a beat officer named Ferris. The card holds the number of an HPD therapist. 

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, working through some of this shit with a professional. The more time Danny spends with Steve, the more he feels this underlying simmer of _something_. At times he thinks it's annoyance, or rage, or frustration, or just plain old depression.

It hits Danny that it could be jealousy. He remembers after a night of drinking, getting up from Steve's couch to hit the head. Danny had heard sex noises from the upstairs bedroom, and immediately felt the urge to punch something.

At the time, he'd written it off as frustration caused by not getting laid at all for the last three years. Now, Danny's not quite sure. 

What if he'd been jealous of the sex not just in general, but because of the specific people having it? 

What if—

Shit, no. That's a dangerous line of thought. Danny stuffs the card back in his wallet and gets out of the car. 

Now _work_. Work is a safe thing to think about. Walking into HQ, Danny calls out, "Hey, Chin! Tell me we've got a case!"

"I've been passing on cases, since the boss is out," Chin replies, coming out of his office to meet Danny at the tech table in the middle of the room. "But I've been sending out some inquiries about The Dragon. Pretty much, I've been getting nothing back. But then _this_ came through the governor's office."

Danny takes a quick look at the letter Chin hands him, noting the logo on the letterhead. "CIA? Wants us to forward all information to them and stop working the case?"

"Yeah, right," Chin replies. "I sent them our report about questioning Sang Min. Everything else John has given us, I have no intention of turning over to _anyone_."

"Nor should you," Danny replies, clapping Chin's shoulder. He looks at the letter again and smiles. "I think Steve'll be happy to see this. Means we're getting close to something big."

"And something _dangerous_ ," Chin points out, but Danny knows better than to assume Chin is trying to dissuade anyone from following up on the case.

Danny grins. "Ten bucks says that very fact will cheer up McGarrett more than anything else."

Laughing, Chin rolls his eyes. "No way I take that bet, brah. No way!"

~*~

"You get out to surf much these days?" John asks, handing Steve the next bolt he needs and watching as Steve fits it into place.

Steve chuckles and admits, "Not as much as I'd like. I stopped by Mamo's a few weeks back, after…" He trails off and sighs, not quite able to say the words to John. Things with Catherine are slowly getting back to normal, and in some ways it's easier to pretend like the miscarriage never happened. "Anyway, it was nice to get out on the waves. Peaceful."

Steve must have a tone, because John prods him in the arm and asks, "But?"

Setting down his wrench, Steve looks over at his father. "But, it's not the same without Freddie."

"Hm," John says, clasping Steve's shoulder and squeezing tightly. "I suppose it wouldn't be." He hands Steve his beer, smiling sadly as he takes a sip of his own. "You know, I remember the first time Nani's boy, Kawika, took you and Freddie out. I just about had a heart attack every time either one of you went under."

The memory makes Steve laugh. "Malia was so jealous that he wouldn't take her, too."

"At least she liked the water," John replied, laughing as well. "Peter could never stand it."

Steve smiles, but the memory of that day catches up to him. He can picture so clearly the face that Freddie made when he first got up on his board. He'd been so happy. Steve sniffs and clears his throat before admitting, "In the service, I lost a couple of friends. Close friends, even, but it's nothing like this."

John puts his arm around Steve's shoulders, and Steve feels almost like he's twelve years old again. "I never had a brother, and I'm not nearly as close to your Aunt Deb as you were to Freddie. So, I won't pretend to know what you're going through. But I did lose a son. You're not alone in missing him."

"Thanks, Dad," Steve says, leaning his head against John's shoulder, just for a moment. "I think losing Freddie, and then losing the baby, it's been hard to get through. I haven't really been myself." He thinks of that weird moment a few days prior when he couldn't look away from Danny's eyes, but he doesn't mention it out loud.

John takes a deep breath, squeezing Steve once more before letting go. "This too shall pass, hey, son?"

"Yeah," Steve replies, standing up straighter and clearing his throat again. He can't forget the main reason he called his dad here today. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure," John replies, finishing off his beer.

"Did my mom ever come by again after she left?"

John looks away, coughing as he says, "Oh, boy."

"Is that a yes?" Steve demands, wiping the grease from his hands onto a rag.

Shaking his head, John says, "Not that I ever saw. It wouldn't surprise me if she kept tabs on us, but she never came for a visit."

Steve wants to ask if that bothered John, but the way John's organizing the tool bench tells Steve he's not exactly comfortable with the topic of conversation. He's never been particularly comfortable with any mention of Doris, now that Steve thinks about it.

He crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the Marquis. "I've been looking into everything you've given me, specifically the car bomb in '91. There's a blood stain on the road, like someone got hurt in the blast, but made it out alive. Of course, any record of the blood or who it belonged to has been wiped from the official records. I'm wondering if it wasn't some sort of trap for Doris. One she narrowly avoided."

John shrugs. "It could've been, for all I know," he admits, crossing his own arms and staring out the carport at the front gate. "I was never privy to any of the missions Doris went on before she came to me, nor where she went after she left us. I would have no idea what sorts of enemies she made."

"And it's not like the CIA is just going to walk in and tell us," Steve says in agreement. 

With a laugh, John says, "Yeah. That's never going to happen." He looks out at the gate for a few more moments, and then says, "Speaking of, Mary's coming into town in a couple of weeks, for Thanksgiving. Is it okay if she stays at the big house with you?"

Steve shrugs. It's been years since he's seen his sister, but he's not quite sure he's ready to forgive her for missing Freddie's memorial service. Still, she's family, so Steve says, "If it's okay with ASEP, it's okay with me."

"Good." John grins at Steve. "Now let's get that manifold back into place, see if we can't get this baby purring."

~*~

"Thanks for letting me make up these hours," Kono says to her instructor as she turns in several assignments at once. 

"As long as it doesn't happen again," Sergeant Hill says, taking the assignments from her. "Police Academy is for _serious_ students."

"I'm very serious about being here," Kono insists. "My—" Kono pauses, searching for the right word to express her relationship to Catherine. Friend doesn't sound close enough to explain her absence from class for an entire day. Catherine's more like family. Ohana. "My sister was in the hospital," Kono explains. "It won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't," Hill replies with a nod, though his tone is approving. Kono must've been right in thinking 'sister-in-the-hospital' was a better excuse than 'friend-in-the-hospital'.

As Kono leaves school, heading for her car, she passes a group of her classmates. One of them calls out to her, "Hey, Kalakaua?"

"Yeah?" She asks, turning toward them, but still walking slowly backward toward her car. 

"Is it true?" someone else asks, and Kono's heart drops.

Coldly, she asks, "Is what true?"

"That you're an ASEP bride," says the first one. "Willis told us you were."

"It's none of Willis's business," Kono shouts back. She turns, walking away from the group of them.

Behind her, Kono hears one of them mutter to the others, "I bet she gets pregnant halfway through training. Doesn't even finish."

As much as Kono _hates_ each and every one of the assholes standing in that group, obviously waiting to harass her, she also feels determined to show them up. She's going to be the best graduate the academy has ever seen. They'll see who's laughing, then.

~*~

Steve gets home from work late, but Catherine's light is still on, so he heads over to her door and knocks lightly. It only takes a few seconds for Catherine to open the door. "Hey," she says, running a hand back through her loose hair. She's wearing running shorts and a loose tank top, perfect for tonight's heat. "Come in."

"Hey," Steve says, kissing Catherine's cheek as he passes her on the way into her cabin. She's got the tv on some old movie, and dishes from dinner sitting on the table in her kitchen. "It feels like I haven't seen you in a few days."

"Did you catch the guy?" she asks, shutting the door and taking Steve's hand, pulling him toward the loveseat couch.

Steve sits down and leans back with a sigh. "He drew on us. I had to fire."

"Ah." Catherine sits and wraps her hands around Steve's arm, leaning her head on his shoulder. "That happens sometimes. There was this kid in Afghanistan," she says, her voice soft and careful. "Maybe 20 years old, but he was firing on my unit. We had to return fire."

"He was killed?"

"Yeah," Catherine says, leaving it at that, even though Steve waits a few moments for more of the story.

When it doesn't come, he asks, "What did you do today?"

"I went to the doctor," she says, her voice careful, and Steve reads it as apprehensive.

He looks over at her and tries to sound casual as he asks, "Oh? What did they say?"

"That it's been two weeks, and I'm healthy enough that we could start trying again as soon as we're ready." Catherine's wearing a hopeful smile, but her eyes are pinched with worry. 

Steve wants to say something cynical about how of course the ASEP doctor would say it's alright to start trying again so soon, but he thinks maybe that's just Danny's voice in his head. "So, are you?" he asks, turning more toward her. "Are you ready?"

Catherine nods, her smile brightening. "Are you?"

Steve isn't quite sure. It's only been two weeks since Steve's hopes for the baby he thought they would have were dashed. In the meantime, he's mostly thrown himself into working—both his Five-0 cases, and the corruption case. There hasn't really been time to process how he's feeling.

Still, some part of Steve recognizes that technically, this is his _job_. His country is counting on him to do this. Catherine is counting on him to do this. Without his participation, her contract might as well be null and void. They could always try to place her with someone else, but that would mean finding someone else compatible, who had room for her.

No, the best thing for Steve to do is smile and say, "Let's do this!"

Having Catherine back in his arms is nice in a way Steve didn't realize he was missing. Her skin is soft, and when she carefully sinks down onto him, the breathy noises she makes drive Steve wild. 

It doesn't take Steve long to come. Catherine shudders and cries out, wrapping her arms around the back of Steve's neck and burying her face in Steve's shoulder. 

"Does Kono need you," Catherine asks, her body still tight around his cock, "or can you stay with me tonight?"

"I can stay," Steve replies. Things with her don't seem quite the same as before, but Steve's having a hard time putting his finger on the exact reasons why. 

It doesn't matter. Steve falls asleep in Catherine's bed, the pillows smelling of her. He dreams of work, and of Danny.

~*~

Steve waits by the baggage carousel assigned to Mary's plane, searching the area for any sign of her. The first few minutes he thinks maybe she's just dawdling in the bathroom, or in the airport shops. Most people, when they get off a four hour flight are eager to get the hell out of the airport. Mary has always marched to her own drummer. 

When Steve sees the sheriff's deputy heading straight for him, he realizes something else is going on.

"Commander McGarrett?" the deputy asks, and Steve sighs.

"This is about my sister, isn't it?"

The deputy nods sadly and gestures for Steve to follow him. As they walk, the deputy explains how Mary disabled the smoke detector on the airplane. Steve, though disappointed, is not surprised. 

It seems like her whole life, Mary has been doing the exact opposite of what she's supposed to do. ASEP kids are taught how to eat nutritional meals, and keep rigorous exercise habits, and keep their bodies free of any carcinogens. Mary, on the other hand, started smoking in high school. She even went to the trouble of getting a fake ID, so she could buy up cases of cigarettes and sell them to the other kids at school.

Steve figures not much has changed since then. 

He gets to the room where the sheriff's deputies are holding Mary, and she looks so miserable that Steve can't help but railroad the deputies into handing her over into his custody. When the others leave to sort out the arrangements, Steve says to his sister, "We missed you at the funeral."

"Yeah, well," Mary says, actually having the courtesy to look down, like she's ashamed. "Something came up."

Steve wonders silently if that something was a drug, and if that drug was really worth missing Freddie's memorial. He doesn't ask out loud, because Mary is just about the most stubborn person Steve knows, and Steve trained as a Navy SEAL. 

"Everyone else was there," Steve says, giving Mary what he hopes is a gentle smile, to keep her from digging in her heels too much.

"Riko?" Mary asks, crossing her arms and raising a skeptical eyebrow at Steve. 

"Yeah, of course."

"Doris?" Mary asks, her voice cold. "What about Gabriel? Did he show up?"

"If I had seen Doris, I would've told you," Steve insists. He doesn't know why Mary cares so much that Doris left. Steve barely remembers her; there's no way Mary could. "Same with Gabriel."

Mary rolls her eyes and huffs. "Fine."

"Fine," Steve replies, and spends the next five minutes watching his sister as she studiously ignores him.

When they get to Steve's truck, Mary finally speaks again. "So, Dad tells me you've gone and let those ASEP bastards make you their whore." Her tone is light, almost friendly, and Steve can't help but narrow his eyes at her. 

"I'm sure Dad used those exact words when he told you," Steve replies, buckling his seatbelt and starting the engine. 

"Well, Dad _is_ just as brainwashed as the rest of you," Mary says, buckling her own seatbelt. "Breeding babies for the military? It's creepy!"

Mary's words make Steve's skin itch uncomfortably. He pulls out of his parking spot and clears his throat. "You know, if it wasn't for ASEP, you and I wouldn't exist. They matched our parents together."

"Maybe they shouldn't have," Mary says, and just like that, Steve is more concerned for her than annoyed with her. 

As they pull away from the airport and onto the freeway, Mary asks, "So, who did they match you up with?"

"Well, one of my friends from the Navy, Catherine Rollins, got herself matched with me," Steve says, hoping Mary with see that ASEP isn't as impersonal as she's making it out to be. "And the other is a former pro-surfer, Kono Kalakaua."

"Oh, my god," Mary cries, so loudly that Steve has to grip the wheel hard to avoid swerving. "You get to sleep with _the_ Kono Kalakaua? Okay, now I'm jealous!"

"You know her?" Steve asks, brushing past the fact that he's pretty sure Mary just admitted being attracted to Kono.

"She was the best! God, the moves she could pull! She came to a competition in LA one year, and I got to watch her live." Mary sighs. "I just about died."

Steve frowns at his sister. "I had no idea you were this deep into surfing."

Flippantly, Mary replies, "There's a lot you don't know about me."

"Yeah, well, don't bother Kono too much while you're at the house, okay? She's busy studying." Steve feels his phone start vibrating in his pocket. 

"Oh. Is she one of those chicks that thinks she can pull off a college degree while in ASEP?"

"Police Academy," Steve replies with a shake of his head. He answers his phone. "McGarrett."

"We've got a situation at Halawa," Danny says, and Steve can almost see the annoyed expression on his face from the tone in his voice. 

Steve looks over at Mary, and decides she could use a little bit of a time out before he takes her to get settled at home. "I'll be there in ten."

Mary rolls her eyes and scoffs. "Unbelievable."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: Miscarriage, blood mention


	3. Thanksgiving 2010

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A holiday with the McGarretts and their newly extended family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's American Thanksgiving, so here's a chapter appropriate for the holiday!

Hearing a banging sound outside in the drive, Steve shoves his feet into his slippahs and grabs up his gun. He hurries out of the house, and immediately realizes that the banging isn't an attack. It's his father, trying to take something large out of the bed of his pickup truck. Steve shakes his head and puts his gun back in the house before heading over to investigate.

"Dad?" Steve calls, getting there just in time to help John lower a large box onto the ground. "What is this?"

With a proud smile, John says, "It's a smoker, Steven. For the turkey."

"The _Thanksgiving_ turkey?" Steve asks, deeply concerned. "Dad, I only bought the one turkey. I'm not sure I want to chance–"

"Don't worry about it," John insists. "I'll be bringing another bird. We're hosting over twenty people, Steve. That's thirty pounds of bird, forty if we want any leftovers. I know we're doing exciting things with science, but I've yet to see one turkey weigh forty pounds."

"Turkeys can get to be, like, eighty pounds." Steve puts his hands on his hips and looks at the box, shaking his head.

John scoffs and asks, "When was the last time you saw an eighty pound bird in the grocery store?"

Steve shakes his head again and points to the box. "Where do you want to set this up, anyway?"

"Out back behind the big nursery building." John nods in that direction, down the path between Catherine's and Jenna's houses. "That way, the turkey will be close to the kitchen when it's ready."

"I'm not even sure the kitchen in the nursery still works." He scrubs his fingers back through his hair, thinking about where he's going to seat all those people in his house. It's doable if he sets up on the back lawn, but that's a risky proposition if it rains. Sighing, he crouches down to get a hold on the box. "Come on. I think I've got just the spot."

John picks up the other end of the box, and as they start carrying it down the path he asks, "So, that turkey you bought. Have you got it in a brine yet?"

"Brine?" Steve asks, watching alternately his feet and over his shoulder as he walks backward. "What does seawater have to do with turkey?"

John mutters something, and Steve can tell it's moderately disparaging. 

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Steve asks.

"I said I should've taught you how to cook before you left for school." John scoffs, but it's in a playful tone. "Now I have a thirty-four year old son who doesn't even properly know how to brine a turkey!"

"Know how to throw a football, though," Steve replies, craning his neck around the box to grin at his father.

"That you do, son," John replies. "Traditional McGarrett family touch football game before dinner?"

It's Steve's turn to scoff. "Of _course_. I even mowed the field last weekend so we've got a nice space to play on."

"Great. I know Peter in particular is looking forward to the game." John laughs. "I think he's going to try to prove Army's better than Navy, but we know different, don't we?"

"Yes, sir!"

~*~

As she waits, Catherine finds herself _almost_ biting her fingernails in anticipation. It's been over a year since she last saw her parents. Normally, at the end of her last deployment, she would have gone to visit them for a week or two in Norfolk before returning to Coronado for on-shore duties. This time, however, has been very different.

Of course, Catherine always knew she'd be entering ASEP once she'd proven her effectiveness in the service. She never expected to end up in Hawaii, but it's as good a place as any.

The only problem is that it's so far away from Norfolk. Taking the time to travel that far, visit, and then travel back might get a little tricky. Scheduling around her cycle and possible pregnancies isn't _that_ hard. What's difficult is explaining to her boss that she'd like a week off. He already doesn't respect her the way she was respected before taking her ASEP assignment.

Suddenly, Catherine wishes she was going home for Thanksgiving weekend, rather than having her parents come here. Sure, they jumped at the chance to come to Hawaii, but none of the rest of Catherine's family is going to be here. Not that everyone would be in Norfolk for the Holiday either—too many of Catherine's siblings are deployed for that to work out. Still, someone was sure to make it home. 

Catherine knows that she's building a new family here, with Steve, but it's just not the same. 

"You can never go home again," she mutters to herself. 

Just a minute later, she catches sight of her dad. When she calls out to him, Catherine's voice sticks in her throat, and she has to try again. "Dad!"

"There's my girl!" he cries out, and Catherine notices that his mustache is a lot more salt and a lot less pepper than the last time she saw him. 

Still spry for his age, Charles takes long strides until he reaches Catherine, wrapping his long arms around her. Catherine's mom, Janet, is a little slower-moving these days, since the arthritis began in her knees. Still, she reaches Catherine in time to take over the hug when Charles starts to let go. 

"Let me have a turn, Chuck. Let me have a turn!" Janet says, using the nickname he only lets his partners call him. 

"There's plenty of me to hug," Catherine insists with a laugh, letting Janet get in a good squeeze. 

When she releases the hug, Janet keeps hold of Catherine's arms, holding her there and looking her over. "How are you feeling, dear? You look a little plumper than last time I saw you. That's good." Ever the nurse, she takes one of Catherine's hands and squeezes Catherine's fingertip as she asks, "Are you taking your prenatals? Getting enough iron? It's very important that you get enough iron, especially after a miscarriage." Letting go of Catherine's finger, she watches it turn pink again as the blood rushes back in.

Catherine can't help but wince a little at the mention of the miscarriage. The pain and disappointment are faded with a little bit of time, but they still feel like a wound in need of more healing. "I'm fine, mom," Catherine insists. "Really. Now, come on! Let's get your bags. I want to show you the island!"

~*~

"Wow," Charles says as they pull through the gate into the compound. "This is _nice_."

"Not quite like the apartment building we had back in Norfolk, huh?" Catherine replies with a chuckle. She parks in her designated spot and has barely turned off the engine before she spots Steve coming toward them with a big smile and a wave.

"Hello!" Steve calls out, shaking hands with Catherine's mom, then her dad. "Welcome!"

Janet gives Catherine a look that says she's impressed with Steve, though whether she's impressed with his manners or his looks, Catherine can't tell.

After Catherine makes formal introductions, Steve asks, "So, what do you want to see first? The main house? Catherine's place? The house you'll be staying in?"

Charles looks back at the trunk of Catherine's car, where their bags are stowed, and then looks at Janet. "I don't know about you, honey, but I could certainly go for some walking around. Stretch my legs a bit."

"Might be good," Janet agrees. "Loosen up these dang knees some."

"Exactly," Steve says with a bright smile. 

They make it halfway around the compound, making idle chit-chat, before Charles says, "So, Steve. Did you play any sports in school?"

Steve grins and makes a throwing motion. "Football. My brother and I broke a few records while we were playing here in Honolulu."

"Freddie?" Catherine asks gently. She's noticed that Steve hasn't been talking about Freddie as much as he did before his death. Steve's mention of him now is a good sign.

"Yeah," Steve says, his mood visibly falling. After a quick sigh, he turns to Catherine's parents and asks, "So, what sport did Catherine do during school? She keeps refusing to tell me."

Gasping with surprise, Catherine says, "That's because it's embarrassing!"

"Figure skating," Janet says, grabbing onto Catherine's shoulders. "And she was _wonderful_."

Steve's face lights up. "Oh, please tell me you have pictures!"

"Are you kidding?" cries Charles, pulling out his wallet. "She made it to the regional finals several years running. Of course we have pictures!" He takes something out of his wallet and hands it to Steve. Catherine hides behind her hands, unable to watch this travesty.

Steve makes a gasp of delight before laughing. "Oh, she was so cute!"

"I made that outfit," Janet says, and right away, Catherine knows which competition her dad has a picture of. 

"Georgia skated too," Catherine says, trying to grab the picture from Steve. "Don't you have any embarrassing pictures of her?"

"She never made regional finals," Charles says, but his grin says he's got something up his sleeve. He pulls another picture from his wallet, and Catherine can't help but groan when she manages to sneak a peek at it before Steve snatches it up. It's the one of Catherine and Georgia side-by-side in their matching skate team uniforms. It's from when Catherine was eleven and Georgia was twelve, and both of them are incredibly gawky.

"You should burn that," Catherine insists.

"No, I'm making a copy and having it framed," Steve says, just about giggling with amusement. "I'm going to show it to our future kids every day."

Catherine pouts. "You're a horrible person, McGarrett."

"Okay, okay," Steve relents, handing the picture back to Charles. He reaches out and pulls Catherine into a hug. "Maybe just once a year."

"Once a year I can live with," she says, rolling her eyes, but leaning into the hug. It feels nice to be close to Steve again. Add on top of that the fact that Catherine can show her parents she's doing well in the program, and it's shaping up to be a pretty great holiday.

~*~

Kono double checks the oven and makes sure the crust is in the pie plate before she goes after the can of pumpkin with her can opener. She's just about got it when her cousin, Kalena, comes through the door with just a cursory knock.

"Aloha, Kono!" she says, giving Kono half a hug and setting a bag down on Kono's little, cluttered kitchen table. "These gonna be the pies?"

"Aloha." Kono wipes her forehead with the back of her hand and tries not to notice the way she's spilled egg on her class notes. "Yeah, this is one. I've got the pineapple pudding pie in the fridge already. You bring the stuff for the macadamia nut pie?"

"I did," Kalena says, reaching into her bag. "Including _this_." She lifts a bottle of dark rum out of the bag and waggles it around.

Kono laughs. "Should you even be drinking? You brought the kids with you, right?"

"Eh, they're fine. Hank is watching them. And cousin Nahuel." Kalena starts to open the bottle, but then she gives Kono a curious look. "Maybe _you_ shouldn't be drinking? Hey, cuz?"

"Why not?" Kono asks, dumping the pumpkin into the bowl with the egg. 

Kalena makes a show of rubbing her belly before raising her eyebrows.

With a laugh, Kono says, "Oh, no. I'm good. I'm finishing academy before we start trying."

"So you haven't…"

Kono shakes her head:

Raising just one eyebrow this time, Kalena says, "Girl, you're crazy! I have seen your man, and he is _gorgeous_!"

"He's not 'my man'," Kono insists. "We're just partners in this program. Don't worry, I'll fulfill my obligation. Eventually."

Kalena goes quiet for a moment before reaching out for Kono's shoulder. "I didn't mean it like that, Kono."

Kono sighs. "I know you didn't."

"I'm grateful for what you're doing," Kalena adds, catching Kono's gaze and holding it. "We all are. You _saved_ my mother."

Kono nods and looks away. She reaches for the milk. "I just did what needed to be done."

Kalena stays silent for a moment before saying, "It's just…"

"It's just what?"

She sighs, shaking her head. "It's just you seem nervous or something. If you don't want to go through with this, we'll figure something out. We'll get the money _somewhere_."

Kono sets down all of her cooking implements and turns to Kalena. She takes Kalena's hands in her own, looks in her cousin's eyes, and says, "We're _not_ getting the money from somewhere else. I'm doing this."

"But…"

Kono shakes her head. "I'm not nervous about Steve. He's great. I'm…" Laughing a little bit at herself, Kono admits, "I'm nervous about what comes after. About being a _mom_. I'm not ready to be a mom!"

"Eh," Kalena shrugs. "It's hard work, but it's not difficult to learn, yeah? And besides," she says as she puts an arm around Kono's shoulders, "you got plenty of family around to help you out."

Kono sighs and leans against her cousin. "That's true."

Her eyes drawn toward the front window, Kalena says, "Speaking of…"

A moment later, the door opens and a wall of muscle walks into the house. "Hey, pretty ladies!"

"Nahuel!" Kono cries, glad to see the man who's her cousin by way of being a family friend, rather than by blood. She gives him a hug and says, "You've got to help me with these pies. After all, you've got the magic touch with food."

"Yeah, yeah," he replies, rolling his eyes. He takes Kono's apron from where she draped it over a chair, loosens the neck strap, and puts it on. Even with the adjustments, it looks comically small on him. "Don't let my ma hear you talking that way. You do, she might stop feeding me."

"Ah, no," Kalena insists, pulling more ingredients out of the bag she brought, "mothers feed their children, no matter how old and capable they get."

Nahuel laughs and pats his belly. "That's why I only go visit once a week. When mama makes the meal, there's no such thing as portion control."

Chuckling, Kono finds a place at the counter and keeps working on her pumpkin pie, happy to be with a more familiar version of family than what she's lived with the past few months. 

She looks over at Kalena and Nahuel, both of them working with capable hands, and then down at her own hands. She knows she's capable of being a surfer, and a cop. Why wouldn't she be capable of being a mother, too?

~*~

"You know," Aunt Debra says as she pushes her masher into the giant pot of potatoes, "when I was growing up in ASEP, we just lived right there on the army base. This whole compound wasn't built until your father was about to be pulled off active duty." She points her masher at Mary, as if she's making a point with it.

"I know, Deb," Mary replies, tipping a few more squares of butter into the pot. "I probably know more about the history of this place than you do."

"Hey," she says, find annoyance in her tone. "Plenty of things happened in this world before you were born, kiddo. You'd do well to listen to your elders once in awhile."

Deb can't be serious. Mary watches Deb's face for some sign that she's joking around, and finally after a few seconds she sees it. The corner of Deb's mouth twitches upward. 

"Ah," Mary cries, pointing at Deb to let her know she's been caught. "And besides, this place isn't even that great. At least on base there's places to _go_. Growing up here was like growing up in a prison."

"Well, that explains so much about the last ten years in LA." Deb makes a face at Mary, which never fails to make Mary laugh. 

"What do you mean by that?" Mary asks, gesturing for Deb to hand her the masher, so she can help with some of the work.

Deb gives Mary the masher and puts a hand on her hip. "Oh, you know. The smoking, the drinking, all the normal teenage rebellion sorts of things."

Mary notices that Deb hasn't mentioned anything about drugs, which means she either never found out about them -- which Mary sort of doubts -- or she's being polite. Mary would put her money on polite.

"Yeah, well," Mary says, her face feeling a little hot. She wipes at her cheek with her shoulder before continuing to mash the potatoes. "Growing up in a fascist eugenics experiment kinda does that to a person."

Across the kitchen Gayle is mixing the polenta on the stove. She takes that moment to pause and turn, giving Mary a _look_. It's a very motherly, slightly disapproving look, and Mary feels cowed for a second. Then her train of thought veers down the well-worn track that says even though Gayle helped raise Mary, she's not Mary's mother. She never will be.

That woman decided to leave, rather than get to know Mary at all.

Mary narrows her eyes at Gayle and angrily mashes the potatoes. However, in the interest of getting through the day without ruining Steve's first Thanksgiving as host, Mary keeps her mouth shut.

That being said, as soon as she passes the masher back to Deb, Mary feels no guilt whatsoever over pouring herself a large glass of wine.

~*~

"Is everything all set?" John asks Steve as he comes out onto the nursery building's lanai, where Steve has placed the tables.

Well, the first table is on the lanai. The other tables are arranged on the lawn beyond. Steve himself got the riding mower out and gassed up and fixed up, all so he could cut the grass for this party and the football game after. 

"I think so," Steve says, counting place settings again. There are too many people to use fancy place settings. Luckily, the nursery building here on the compound has a kitchen meant for feeding lots of kids day in and day out. There are plenty of service-grade plates and cups and silverware. The wine glasses are all cheap ones he got from the dollar store as soon as it was decided he would be hosting for the holiday.

The buffet table is loaded with food (except for the turkey and the pies), the places on the other tables are all set. Some of the kids from the Kalakaua family made centerpieces, and Gayle brought cloth napkins rolled in little turkey-shaped napkin rings. 

"It's going to be good," Steve says, and he wishes he'd said it more like a statement and less like a question. 

"Yeah, it is," John assures him. He claps Steve on the shoulder and says, "Your brother Pete called. He's almost here."

Steve almost asks John why he bothers to specify which brother he means. Of the three brothers Steve had, Freddie is dead, and Gabriel hasn't been in contact with anyone in the family in over five years. Of course Pete is the brother in question. 

Steve knows John has to be missing Freddie just as much as he is, so all he does is squeeze John's shoulder and say, "Great. It'll be good to see him."

On his way out toward the gates to greet his brother, Steve passes through the main kitchen, stealing a few vegetables from Riko's salad (and ducking her swat to the back of his head). He notices Mary quietly drinking wine in the corner, frowning at the goings-on, and makes a mental note to talk to her again. He probably won't have any better luck explaining to her why he joined ASEP than the first time he tried, but it seems important to attempt anyway.

Shaking himself out of those thoughts -- this is a holiday, dammit -- Steve reaches the front driveway just as the gates are opening and Pete walks in. Steve notices the cab Pete took from the airport turn and drive away, and suddenly he feels stupid for not offering to pick him up. He must really have a lot on his mind lately.

"Hey, Pete!" Steve calls, meeting his brother halfway with outstretched arms. "How's it going?"

Pete hugs Steve, giving him a few hard thwaps on the back before letting go. "Not too bad," Pete says, with a bright grin.

His smile is the same as Freddie's -- it always has been -- and Steve's heart aches sharply at the sight. He hadn't noticed how much he'd been missing that smile until he saw it again. It's not the same, of course. Though Pete is Steve's brother too, he'll never be Freddie, and Steve can't let himself fall into the trap of thinking Pete could be some sort of replacement.

Pete slugs Steve on the arm, looks around the compound, and says, "They finally let you be in charge of this place, huh?"

With a chuckle, Steve says, "Yeah. I guess they have."

"You didn't throw out any of my old stuff, did you?" Pete raises an eyebrow at Steve, putting his hands on his hips.

"No," Steve replies, suddenly remembering the collection of some sort of nerdy trading card that Pete guarded religiously the first summer Steve and Freddie came home from Eisenhower Prep. "Though I might have to have some of the PFCs start clearing out room. We're going to be needing the space."

Pete chuckles. "I suppose they don't call it the ' _expansion_ program' for nothing. I'll take the things I really want to keep. I promise."

"Well, I mean, it's going to be a couple of years, at least," Steve relents, knowing that even as long as they've been adults, this place still feels like home. "You can take your time."

As he nods, Pete looks Steve up and down. After a moment, he asks, "When the hell did you get so old, big brother?"

"I'm not--"

Behind Steve, Gayle calls out, "There he is!"

Steve practically gets the wind knocked out of him as Pete shoves his bag in Steve's direction and then goes for a hug from his mother. As much as Steve loves Gayle, and as much as she's always treated Steve like one of her own, he's never been able to hug her in that way Pete and Freddie could. For the millionth time, Steve reminds himself that it's not Pete or Gayle's fault that Doris left.

That's on Doris. It always has been.

"Hey, Ma," Pete says as he steps back. "Sorry I couldn't make it until just now. The emergency leave I took for the funeral kinda ate my brownie points with my CO."

Steve notices the way Gayle's eyes tear up at the mention of the funeral. To be honest, he's not doing too well at the mention, either. He takes Pete's bag with him toward the house that has Pete's old bedroom -- Gayle's old house -- and drops it next to the entryway. Pete should have no problem finding it, and Steve has turkeys (plural) to check on.

~*~

"Alright, everyone. Come on, settle down," John says as the last of the guests finish sitting down at the tables. John's at the head of the main table, the patriarch of the family. 

Steve's sitting on John's right, across from Gayle, who's on John's left. Catherine's at Steve's side, with her parents beside her, and Pete across from her. One of Kono's cousins (though Steve is fairly certain he's not a cousin by blood) is sitting between Pete and Aunt Deb, making friendly conversation with Pete and ignoring the way Deb keeps poking his arm muscles, like she can't quite believe they're real.

Kono and her parents round out the table, with Kono's mom in her wheelchair at the end. Steve wishes he would have thought about the fact that Mrs. Kalakaua uses a wheelchair before he decided to host Thanksgiving out on the lawn. When Steve was a kid, there were plenty of holidays celebrated inside the large multipurpose room of the nursery. It would've been a lot easier wheeling her over linoleum flooring.

And yet, Steve looks up at the blue sky, hardly a cloud in sight, and he can't help but be grateful he's back in Hawaii. Back home.

Riko and her husband Sam head up a second table, with Malia and Chin next to them. Chin's parents are there as well, along with his and Kono's aunt and uncle, and their daughter Kalena. Kalena brought her family, all three kids, and Steve is fascinated by the way they negotiate seats at the kids table. 

Steve catches sight of Mary pouting at the end of Riko's table, and he thinks maybe she'd fit in better at the kid's table. If the attitude fits, after all. 

As the crowd grows quiet, John says, "I'd just like to say how thankful I am to be with all of you today, especially those of you who traveled long distances to get here. Pete. Mary. Deborah." John holds his hand to his heart. "Thank you."

"You're welcome!" Deb cries out, drawing laughter from those around her. 

"I also want to welcome the new branches of our family tree," John continues. He gestures to Catherine's parents, and then Kono's. "The Rollins, the Kalakauas. I hope to be seeing you at family holidays for many years to come."

Steve glances over at Catherine and returns her smile, all while wondering if Doris's family ever came to holidays while she lived here. Did she even have any family? Whenever Steve had tried to ask as a child, John had brushed away the question, distracting him with something else. Eventually, Steve learned to stop asking. He figures there's two possibilities. Either Doris had no family, or she did and they wanted nothing to do with Steve and Mary. If that was the case, Steve can forgive John for wanting to spare Steve from the realization that he might have family members who just _don't_ care about him.

"Alright! Let's eat!" John says as he starts carving the turkey in front of him. There are two more turkeys already carved and in steamer trays on the buffet table, but there's something to be said for the show of carving the turkey at the head of the table. 

As they eat, Mrs. Rollins asks, "So, what are you thankful for today, Steve?"

"Oh, you know," Steve replies, putting an arm around Catherine and giving her a squeeze. "Good friends. Good food." He looks around the table, and around at the compound itself. "I'm grateful to be home, actually. To _have_ a home again that's not a ship."

John and Charles both laugh, as does Catherine. All of them know exactly what it's like serving on board. Steve smiles, feeling if not completely at peace, at least somewhat close to it. 

This is the first holiday he's celebrated after Freddie's death. His absence hurts like a severed limb. Steve keeps catching Pete out of the corner of his eye and turning toward him, intending on saying something to Freddie.

It's jarring every time it happens and Steve wishes his brain would just catch up to the fact that Freddie is dead.

~*~

As dinner's winding down, Steve's phone buzzes in his pocket. When he checks, it's Danny calling. Flashing his phone to the others at the table, Steve says, "I'm gonna take this."

Leaving the table, Steve answers the phone as he steps into the nursery. "Hey, Danno!"

"You blow up the island yet?" There's just enough humor in Danny's voice to let Steve know that he's joking.

"No, thank you very much," Steve says with a laugh. "Just finishing up some truly excellent food. Did you know that Kono can make pies? There's this pumpkin one with coconut pudding on top, and oh, man!"

"Coconut? On pumpkin pie? Are you kidding me?" Danny cries. 

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it," Steve insists.

As Danny makes noncommittal noises, Steve finds himself wishing Danny was in the room. That way, Steve could see and be amused by all the faces Danny makes to go with those noises. 

"You know, if you were in town for the holiday, you could've tried a piece for yourself," Steve points out.

Danny pauses for a long moment before asking, "I would have been invited?"

Steve chuckles. "What, are you kidding? Of course you would have been. Grace, too. There's some other kids here. I bet she would have liked playing with them."

"Kids? Who's kids?" Danny asks, sounding almost threatened. Like he wants Grace to be the only kid in Steve's life—at least until Steve has his own. 

"Just Kono's cousin's kids," Steve says. "Don't worry. I didn't play with them at all. No need to tattle on me to Grace or anything."

Danny laughs, and that's the moment Steve realizes he _misses_ Danny. It's only been two days since Danny flew to Jersey, and Steve already misses him. That's weird, right? Not normal?

As Danny heads into a rant about Rachel taking Grace all the way to England for an _American_ holiday, Steve forgets to worry about whether or not his reaction to Danny's absence is normal or not. He lets the words flow over him and thinks to himself that next year, hell or high water, he's getting Danny to come to Thanksgiving dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will post in approximately two weeks. Yes, it's a major slowdown, but if I'm going to keep a consistent posting schedule up until an "end of season" break, I'm going to need that lead time. I hope you'll stick with the story despite the wait!


	4. December 2010 – February 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve finds out his new home isn't as secure as he thought it was. When he finds out who was behind the attack, he ends up seeking solace in new places.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: kidnapping, home invasion, explicit sex scenes (*eyebrow wiggle*), infidelity (sort of)

Mary Ann McGarrett _never_ thought she'd come back to the ASEP compound where she grew up, but she finds herself more comfortable here than she thought she would. It helps that John and Gayle aren't living here anymore. The dinner she had with them the night after she got back to Honolulu was awkward enough. And then there was _Thanksgiving_. Both gatherings reminded Mary of those last two years of high school, when she could tell how disappointed they were she hadn't made the cut for the ASEP school in DC, Eisenhower Prep, like all of her older brothers, and Malia.

Whatever. Fucking brainwashed sheep, thinking she was going to go along with their plan to make her into a perfect little soldier. It was never going to work. The whole "breeding" program is a joke, as far as Mary's concerned. Of course the bigger joke is that so many people go along with it. 

People like freaking _Kono Kalakaua_ go along with it!

Feeling like the only sane person in the world, Mary wanders out of the cabin she's stayed in the past three nights, and toward what she still thinks of as "Dad's House." Steve's fridge is always stocked, and Mary could really use a mid-afternoon snack after surfing all morning. She has to admit that the surfing here is much better now that she's almost thirty and definitely off the ASEP registry. When she was eighteen and they thought they still might have a shot, they'd always send some bullshit security guard with her whenever she went anywhere.

Mary never felt more like her mother's daughter than when she was giving those guards the slip.

As she lets herself into now-Steve's house, the first thing Mary notices are the sex noises coming from upstairs. "Ugh, again?" she scoffs, heading for the kitchen and suddenly glad her room was in Gayle's house growing up. Hearing this from Dad would've been a thousand times worse.

In the fridge, Mary finds half a tray of lasagna, so she cuts herself off a piece and puts it in a bowl. She's pretty sure the microwave in her cabin is the one from when Riko first moved in here almost thirty-five years ago, so she stays long enough to use Steve's. While she's waiting, Mary notices a case file on the kitchen table.

Always curious, she takes a look, and the pictures in the file are horrifyingly familiar. Dad hadn't let her see the aftermath of the car bomb that woke her up in the middle of the night all those years ago, but that doesn't mean she can't recognize the photos. She had nightmares about that scorch mark on the outer wall for _months_ after it happened.

Damn those assholes at the CLF. Mary was as motivated to see the end of ASEP as anyone else, but that bomb had gone off just thirty feet from her bedroom. It left a crack in her window that reminded her of the attack for months until it got fixed. She was freaking ten years old and traumatized. It certainly didn't feel like "liberation".

As Mary looks through the file, and the notes written in Steve's stupid handwriting, she gets the impression that the attack had less to do with the CLF than everyone told her. In fact, it might have had to do with Doris. 

Mary had only ever seen pictures of the woman before. She'd left before Mary was a year old, her duty completed, no love lost for the children she'd brought into the world. All Mary had left of her were pictures and her father's stories, and now this case file.

The sounds upstairs still going strong (ew), Mary takes out her phone and starts taking pictures of everything. It's a long shot, but if any of this information could lead Mary to Doris, she wants it. She isn't quite sure what she would do if she found Doris, but it's going to be something spectacular. Guaranteed.

~*~

"Hey, you wanna grab some beers?" Danny asks, hanging through the door of his office as Steve walks by. Steve notices the way Danny's shirt stretches over the muscles of his shoulders, and thinks maybe Danny should just give up and go shopping sometime this decade. Preferably for shirts he can't wear with a tie.

Regretfully, Steve answers, "I can't, man. Catherine's…" God, he really does not want to say "ovulating" out loud.

"Right," Danny replies, and Steve doesn't miss the way Danny's face falls. "Maybe next week."

"Definitely," Steve replies, walking back a few steps to hold his fist out toward Danny.

Danny rolls his eyes, but bumps his fist against Steve's with a smile.

The tight feeling in Steve's chest—brought on by that smile—follows Steve all the way home. It follows Steve into his bed, where Catherine is waiting for him. Shaking away the feeling, Steve tries to focus on Catherine.

When he does, when he kisses her and caresses her face, meeting her eyes, he sees lust there. Maybe fondness, too, but Steve can't find any evidence that Catherine loves him the way he's starting to love her.

His chest tightens again and he reminds himself that this isn't about love. It's a job, and he needs to remember that. Steve needs to keep his head on straight, because Kono's graduation is coming up in just a few months, and he's going to have to be with her. He's going to have to be with whoever they send next, after Kono. Steve can't fall in love with Catherine, not the way his traitorous heart wants to.

As he pushes into her body and breathes in the scent of her hair, Steve tries to imagine being with someone else, with anyone else.

He pictures blonde hair and a dazzling smile, and he comes.

~*~

When Chin sees Victor Hesse's face on the surveillance video, walking with Five-0's latest vic, he can't help but narrow his eyes and promise himself that he's going to catch that bastard this time. After all, he's the one that made it over the wall at the McGarrett compound, and probably would've killed Chin's future in-laws, if Chin and Danny hadn't been in the right place at the right time. He's the guy that was said to be dead and at the bottom of the ocean _months_ ago, but here they are. Victor's face is on a tape made two days ago. He's alive and well, after all.

Chin doesn't know how he can possibly promise himself to Malia forever before taking care of this threat to her family. 

Of course, when Chin sees the look on Steve's face, he can't help but conclude that Steve's seeing not just the man who almost murdered his parents, but one of the men responsible for his brother's death.

"We'll get him," Chin promises Steve. 

Distractedly, Steve replies, "Yeah. We'll get him. And this time, we either bring him into custody, or we see him dead with our own eyes."

Across the table, Danny says, "Sang Min lied to us. I don't know about you guys, but I kinda think behavior like that might have earned Sang Min a beatin'."

"No, but you and I are going to go talk to Sang Min," Steve tells Danny, leaving Chin behind to come up with his own orders. 

Chin has noticed Steve "borrows" Danny from him a lot these days. It's fine. Chin can see how close the two of them have become in the last couple months. Still, he kind of misses having a partner. 

Well, when Kono finishes the academy and joins Five-0, Chin will definitely have a partner again. Steve might be the boss, but he's never trained a rookie cop before. Chin has trained several, and was, himself, trained by one of the best: John McGarrett.

Later that evening, after sweeping Victor Hesse's apartment with HPD SWAT as his backup, Chin gets a call. "Steve?"

"Sang Min and Victor Hesse took off in our car. They're headed toward you. Ala Moana harbor."

"Got it," Chin replies, starting his bike. "I'm headed there now."

Chin almost goes alone, except he meets the SWAT team at the end of the alley. "We've got our suspect two blocks from here," he tells the captain. "How fast can you redeploy over at Ala Moana harbor?

"Lead the way," says the captain, motioning for his people to load up into their truck.

Chin races two blocks through Honolulu on his bike, SWAT right behind him. He's got a slip number from Danny, and with SWAT at his back, Chin feels confident that today is the day they take Victor Hesse into custody.

Chin clears room after room on the boat, SWAT spreading out behind him. In one room, Chin finds Sang Min's tracker, but not Sang Min. Suddenly, there's an overwhelming pain in Chin's head and everything goes black.

When he comes to, Chin is laying on a stretcher next to an ambulance. He blinks a few times before his vision is clear enough to see he's still at the docks. Danny's standing beside Chin's stretcher, looking over at where Victor Hesse and Sang Min are being loaded into a prisoner transport. "Hey, what happened?"

Danny looks down at Chin with a surprised jump of his eyebrows. "Hey, it speaks!"

Chin puts a careful hand to his head. "How long was I out?"

"Ten minutes, maybe," Danny replies, squeezing Chin's shoulder. "Probably got a pretty nasty concussion."

"He got the drop on me," Chin says, wincing when his fingers touch a particularly sore spot. "It shouldn't have happened." _Not if I had a partner with me_ , Chin adds silently.

"Yeah, well, lucky for you, SWAT is great at their jobs. They caught Sang Min on the boat, and flushed Hesse down here, where Steve and I were waiting for him."

"Did anyone else get hurt?" Chin asks, noticing the bruise on Danny's cheek and pointing to it.

"Nah," Danny says, waving off Chin's concern. "Just remind me never to get in the way when Steve has it in his head to make a flying tackle."

"I said, I'm sorry," Steve insists as he approaches them, handing an ice pack to Danny. "I couldn't let him get away."

"I know that," Danny concedes, pressing the ice to the side of his face. He gives Steve a long smile, and Chin wonders if they think they're being at all subtle. 

"Anyway," Steve says, breaking his long moment of eye contact with Danny, "your fiancé is waiting for you at Tripler."

Chin groans. Malia always goes overboard when Chin gets injured. "Who told her?"

"Uh," Steve says, clearing his throat. "I think it was Duke."

For a Navy SEAL, Steve is a very unconvincing liar.

"Uh-huh," Chin says, laying back as the EMTs prepare to load him into the ambulance. "Guess who just lost best man privileges!"

Steve's annoyed scoff and Danny's delighted giggle follow Chin all the way to the hospital. 

~*~

Though Catherine knew her life would change somewhat when she left the field and started living on the McGarrett compound, she didn't take into account _how_ her routines would change. Sure, she's having a lot more sex with Steve, but the lack of confidence her superiors have in her performance feels awful. After taking a few doctor-ordered days off due to the miscarriage, things with Commander Lennox get even worse. 

And now, every morning this week, Catherine has to take one of the pregnancy tests that magically showed up in her cabin a few days after she'd moved in. 

Unwrapping the stick, Catherine sits down on the toilet and pees on it for the required five seconds before setting it next to the counter and getting on with her morning. She doesn't even bother to look at it until she's showered and dressed, hair dried, and brushing her teeth. 

When Catherine sees the faint pink line on the test, she almost chokes on her toothpaste. It's been a month since the miscarriage, and she's pregnant _again_? Her hands shaking slightly, Catherine picks up the test and gives it a closer look. This has to be some sort of error, doesn't it? The doctor said that she and Steve could start trying this month, but that it might take a few cycles for her body to really reset and be ready for another baby.

Apparently not.

Suddenly, Catherine feels very grateful for the effectiveness of modern birth control.

Catherine spits out the rest of her toothpaste and rinses her mouth before pulling out her phone and snapping a picture of the test. She sends it to the ASEP officer, as per her instructions, and goes to work.

Catherine's not surprised when an Army private shows up at her office door mid-morning. "Lieutenant Rollins," she says, knocking on the door lightly. "I've got orders to take you up to Tripler for an appointment."

"Right," Catherine replies, shutting down her terminal and standing up from her desk.

As she and the private pass Commander Lennox's office, he calls out, "Rollins! You're still on-duty!"

"Orders from ASEP, sir," she replies, gesturing to the private. 

"What, does your man need to be serviced _right now_? Command needs your reports."

Beside Catherine, the private shifts uneasily on her feet, clearly made uncomfortable by Lennox's suggestion. Catherine wonders if she came from an ASEP family, too. Generally, ASEP kids are educated to join active service directly as commissioned officers, but this woman wouldn't be the first to fail the entrance requirements for that path to service.

With a smile, Catherine tells Lennox, "You're welcome to call ASEP and explain to them how I'm far too busy to follow their schedule of doctor's appointments, sir. They might just pull me from the field, and then you won't have to worry about little old me anymore."

Lennox's cheeks go red and his mustache twitches a few times before he says, "Fine. Get going. Let me know when you're back."

"Will do, sir," Catherine replies with a polite nod.

In the car, the Private—Griffin, from the name on her fatigues—asks, "Permission to ask a question, ma'am?"

"Sure," Catherine replies, watching the scenery pass.

"Is your CO always such a dick?"

Catherine can't help but laugh, even though she knows she should be encouraging respect for one's superiors. "Um, yeah. Pretty much."

"That sucks," Griffin notes, pulling up the drive to Tripler.

"It's a temporary placement," Catherine says, like that makes anything better.

~*~

When Steve wakes up, it's the middle of the night, and someone is moving around downstairs. His first thought is that it's Mary, back from wherever she went tonight, but the footsteps sound wrong. They're too heavy to be Mary, too heavy to be Catherine or Kono, either.

Heart pumping, and the room coming into better focus, Steve grabs his gun from his bedside drawer and starts moving. What if they hacked the ASEP files and know Catherine's pregnant again? What if they're here for her? Steve tries to tell himself that it's much more likely they're here for him. He hasn't been that shy about making enemies during his work with Five-0, after all.

Steve hits the silent alarm as he leaves his bedroom, gun leveled and feet as quiet as he can make them as he sneaks through his own house. Going down the stairs silently takes forever, and Steve's glad he's kept up his workout regimen, otherwise he knows his muscles would be straining with the effort to move this slowly. On the first floor of his house, Steve finds a man in dark clothes going through the drawers of the desk in the study. 

This isn't about Catherine at all. It's about his father's investigation.

Steve points his gun at the intruder and says, "Turn around. Slowly."

The man puts up his hands and does start turning around, but that's when Steve hears footsteps to his right. He has to take his gun off the first man to dodge the second's attack, and in the fight that follows, Steve's gun gets knocked to the ground. Guns are useless at close range, anyway.

Steve's able to knock out one with a chair, and the second with his fists, but as soon as he pulls away the second attacker's mask, something crackles at the back of his neck and he goes down.

When Steve wakes up, there's pale morning light in the windows and his head is killing him. There's a noise at the front door behind him, and when he manages to turn and look, it's Kono. She's wide-eyed, wearing loose shorts and a tank top, like she just woke up. Her bare feet slap against the floor as she hurries toward Steve.

"Oh, my god," she cries, offering Steve a hand up. "What happened?"

"Someone broke in," Steve says. He gestures toward the desk in the study, which is even more torn apart than it was when he saw it last. "They went after my files. And the toolbox with all the— the other stuff." Heading for the window, so he can look out at the rest of the compound, he asks, "Is everyone else okay?"

"I don't know," Kono replies, half out the door. "You check on Catherine. I've got Mary."

Steve doesn't question Kono's orders, he just runs toward Catherine's cabin, wondering why the alarm he set off hours ago didn't summon help the way it was supposed to. He crashes through Catherine's front door, noticing nothing amiss, and then through into her bedroom. 

Catherine is in her bed, sitting up and breathing heavily, probably startled awake by Steve crashing into her home. "Steve?" she asks as she climbs out of bed. 

"We got attacked," Steve says to Catherine shortly, turning back around to head toward Mary's, now that he knows Catherine is safe. He hears Catherine follow him as he heads back out and down the pathway. 

As Steve reaches Mary's cabin, he almost runs into Kono as she's coming out. "No sign of her," Kono says, brushing past Steve. "I'm gonna call help."

"The alarm didn't work," Steve calls after her, heading into Mary's place to take a look around. Some of the furniture is shifted, or knocked over, and Steve finds a dark puddle that makes his heart stop. "I got blood!" he calls to Catherine, who's standing at the door way. Steve finds a cloth and uses it to pick up another piece of evidence. "And a tooth!"

"Mary's?" Catherine asks, her mouth set in a severe, worried line. 

"I hope not," Steve replies, heading for Mary's kitchenette so he can find a makeshift evidence bag.

"Why did they take _her_?" Catherine asks, her arms wrapped around herself protectively. Steve can practically hear the way she asks why they left Catherine alone in her bed, and took Mary instead.

"I don't know." Steve gets the tooth in a bag and grasps it tightly. "Go get dressed. The cavalry's gonna be here soon."

Steve heads out to the gate, and finds that standing wide open, as well. The guard is missing from the guardhouse, and Steve finds him in the bushes along the wall. There are burn marks from a stun gun on his neck, but he's not breathing, and his skin is cooler than it should be. 

At the guardhouse, Steve finds the phone line cut and the alarm system deactivated. No wonder help didn't come. He hears the emergency response now, sirens blaring through the neighborhood below, climbing the foothills to get to them. 

Oddly enough, it's Danny who shows up first, his Camaro climbing the drive and pulling through the open gate. Danny jumps out of his car and reaches for Steve. "What happened?"

Steve gives Danny the rundown as the rest of the emergency responders pull up. In a low voice, he tells Danny, "I don't think we should mention my dad's evidence to anyone else. Maybe just mention how my red toolbox was stolen."

"Shit, they got that, too?" Danny asks, his hand solid on Steve's shoulder. 

Steve nods and presses the tooth into Danny's hands. "Hold onto that. I'm gonna get ready to go."

"We'll find her," Danny says, catching Steve before he can escape. "Hey. We'll find her."

Steve stares at Danny for a moment, taking strength from his sincere expression. His chest grows tight again and and he nods his thanks before escaping. 

Dressing quickly, Steve's strapping on his holster as he heads back out. The corporal from ASEP, Whitesides, stops him, saying, "Commander! You're too close to this. Let us handle—"

"If you ever want me to work for you again," Steve tells her, his voice so deadly serious he can see the way it scares her, "you will get the hell out of my way and let me find my sister."

She gapes for just long enough that Steve takes the inch she's given him and makes it a mile. "Danny! Let's go!"

Danny tosses Steve the keys to the Camaro and they're off, delivering the tooth and a sample of the blood to Max at the ME's office before retracing Mary's steps. 

"Did you tell your Dad yet?" Danny asks as they're driving, and Steve has to shake his head.

"I didn't have time."

"You don't think he'd want to know what happened to Mary? You don't think he'd want to help?"

Frowning at the tone in Danny's voice, Steve says, "He's retired, Danny. He'd just get himself hurt."

Before Danny can respond, Steve's phone rings and it's Mary. They use the phone call to figure out her position, and take a helicopter to catch up to her before her kidnappers get to the place where they obviously intended to kill her and dispose of her body.

Steve holds Mary close, trying not to think about how close he was to losing her. "I've got you," he says, closing his eyes and rocking her back and forth. "I've got you."

Back at HQ, after Mary's wounds have been attended to, Steve sits her down and asks, "What happened?"

Tears in her eyes, Mary shrugs. "I messed up. I'm so sorry, Steve."

"How?" Steve asks, shooting Danny a look as he comes into the room. "Mary, how did you mess up? This was a coordinated attack on the compound."

Mary looks down, picking at the bandages wrapped around her right arm. "The case file on your kitchen table. The one about the bomb and maybe Doris." She winces. "And the toolbox with the tapes and crap. I found them."

Steve has to close his eyes and take a deep breath so he doesn't lose his temper. "You found them?"

"And let me guess," Danny says, crossing his arms over his chest, "you started asking questions about them."

Mary meets Danny's eyes for a second before speaking. "Yeah."

"Mary," Steve says with a sigh, heading over to her and holding her close. "Someone found out you'd been poking around in things they don't want anyone to know about. We know there was a mole in HPD. If he heard about the questions you were asking, he could've told exactly the wrong people!"

"What I don't get is why they'd take Mary, and not take you," Danny says, pointing to Steve. "Obviously the stuff was in your house. You knew about it, too."

"I heard them talking," Mary says, looking from Danny to Steve, and back again. "They were gonna sell me, but they thought Steve was too high risk."

"Yeah, usually the patriarchs get offed, not sold," Danny says, and Steve thinks it's weird to hear that term applied to him. "Too highly trained to be able to control well."

"Then why didn't they kill me?" Steve asks. "They had me out cold. It wouldn't have been hard."

"Maybe because you've got friends in high places," Mary suggests. "ASEP, the SEALs, the governor. You're untouchable, bro, and you know it."

Steve can't help but pout a little. He'd like to think he's good at his job because of his skills and hard work, not because people are too afraid to properly take him on.

A knock at the door draws Steve's attention to Kono, who has two HPD officers at her back. "Hey, Mary," she says with a careful smile. "ASEP's putting us up in a safe house while they fix the security system at the compound. If you're ready to go?"

Mary looks to Steve, who nods. "Yeah, go. Get some rest. We'll follow the leads and find out who was behind this."

Mary wraps her arms around Steve's body and squeezes him tightly. "Stay safe, okay?"

"Yeah," Steve says, hugging her back. "You, too."

As Steve watches Kono and the HPD take Mary away, Chin comes back with a folder in his hands. "Max has us a lead on our two dead guys." 

The distinctive tattoos on the kidnappers' bodies lead them to the man who lost the tooth, and he leads them to Hiro Noshimuri, supposed head of the Yakuza on the island.

As Steve sits across the table from Mr. Noshimuri, sizing him up and vowing to prove he's behind Mary's kidnapping, he doesn't see the governor approaching until it's too late. "McGarrett?"

Steve stands up in horror and watches as the governor approaches Noshimuri, embracing him. Steve knows John had some reservations about the governor, and her ties to the corruption he had been trying to root out of HPD. Steve had no idea she would be connected to the man who ordered Mary's kidnapping.

Hopping mad, Steve excuses himself, walking away quickly, with Danny on his heels. He drives them as far as Danny's apartment in silence. He wants someplace that feels safe, and God knows his house doesn't. He can't stand the thought of seeing Mary without being able to tell her he caught the guy, so the ASEP safe house is out. HQ doesn't even feel safe, because the governor paid for all of it. If she's in bed with the Yakuza, who knows what sorts of recording devices she has planted? No, Steve needs to go dark. He needs someplace to calm down and get his thoughts together.

"I want him dead," Steve hisses, as soon as Danny closes the door behind them. "For what he did to Mary, I want him dead. I want her impeached, and in prison. Danny—"

Danny takes Steve by the back of the neck and pulls him close, forcing Steve to meet his eyes. "Steven. If we want to take them down, we're gonna need proof. Rock-solid proof, and you know it."

"But the governor, she's—" Steve looks away, capturing a breath that wants to elude him. "Her influence is everywhere. How are we going to—" Steve shakes his head again, pressing his fingers to his eyes. "I just wanted—"

It seems like everything Steve wants is something he can't have. He can't fall in love with Catherine, because ASEP owns his life for the next ten years. He can't have Freddie back, because that last mission got Steve's brother killed. He can't track down the people John thinks are responsible for Freddie's death, because the governor is protecting them. He can't even keep Mary safe.

He can't—

Steve looks up at Danny, who's still holding him close, the solid weight of his hand on the back of Steve's neck. He feels all turned around, rudderless and reeling, and Steve can't help but want something just for himself. Something all his own, that no one else has a say in.

Swaying forward, Steve presses his lips to Danny's.

Danny makes a surprised noise in his throat, but he doesn't push Steve away. When Steve changes his angle and kisses Danny again, Danny kisses Steve back. His mouth is hot against Steve's, and his tongue slick when Steve parts his lips. There's rough stubble on his face, and although Steve is familiar with the way Danny smells, it's a thousand times more intense with his nose pressed to Danny's skin, and his tongue in Danny's mouth, tasting him.

Realizing he's been wanting this in the back of his mind for _months_ without being able to put a name to it, Steve winds his hands around Danny and pulls him closer. Steve bends his knees to better line up with Danny's height, pressing his hips flush with Danny's. He kisses away from Danny's mouth, down his jaw and neck, using one hand to loosen Danny's stupid tie.

"Steve," Danny murmurs, his hands in Steve's hair. The feel of Danny's fingers skidding across his scalp makes Steve shiver, makes his cock throb and his hips hitch to get closer to Danny's body. But then Danny's grasping Steve by the hair and pulling it. "Steven!"

"What?" Steve asks, breathless, noticing the way Danny's lips have gone red, and his eyes have gone soft. He tries to go back in for another kiss, but Danny stops him. "C'mon, please?"

"Look," Danny says, swallowing loudly. "I know that this day has been in the crapper since the first minute of it, and I know you're working through some epic emotions here, but you _can't_ do this."

"You don't want to," Steve realizes, forcing his hands to open so they'll let go of Danny's shirt. "God, I'm sorry, Danny. I— I'll—"

Danny sighs and swings his body around like he's teetering on the edge of some decision. The longer he hesitates, the more hope swells in Steve's chest. Eventually, Danny reaches out and says, "Steven. It doesn't matter what I want—"

"So you do want me?"

Danny laughs and looks away, his smile sad. When he looks back he says, "It doesn't matter what I want. You don't belong to me."

"I don't even belong to myself," Steve insists, putting first one hand on Danny's waist, and then the other when he's not pushed away. "Not yet. If I did— When I _do_ , I want to be with you." The words come out of Steve's mouth before he thinks them through, but the feel so _true_ , there's no way he's taking them back.

"You're insane," Danny says, but he runs his hands up Steve's arms. "You've got that cutie, Catherine. You've got _Kono_. And somehow, you've convinced yourself you want me?"

Steve shrugs, pulling Danny's hips closer, so they're flush with the tops of Steve's thighs. "You grew on me."

"Like a fungus?" Danny asks with a laugh.

Chuckling, Steve replies, "Yeah. Like a fungus."

Skip the NC-17 part

He keeps his eyes on Danny's face as he ducks in for another kiss. Danny allows it, then cups his hands around Steve's face and nudges him to a better angle, kissing the hell out of him. When he pulls back, panting, Danny asks, "If we do this, is ASEP gonna come for me? What are we talking here? Snipers? Black helicopters in the middle of the night?"

Steve shakes his head, sure he's heard stories along this line before. Of course, all those stories were about _women_. "As long as I keep up with my duties, they're not gonna care."

Danny raises a skeptical eyebrow at Steve. "Are you just saying that to get in my pants?"

Steve's cock twitches at the thought. He hasn't really thought as far ahead as what he'll do once Danny's naked, only that Steve wants to get him there as quickly as possible. "No," Steve says, fitting his hand between them and cupping Danny's cock over his slacks. "Definitely not."

Danny groans. "This is such a bad idea," he says, even as he pushes Steve's shirt up and over his head. 

"The worst," Steve agrees, pulling Danny's belt open and then working on the buttons of his shirt. "So bad."

As Danny undoes Steve's belt, he giggles. "You actually get off on breaking the rules, don't you? I should've known the moment you started dangling that guy off a roof."

"Shut up, Danno." Steve cups Danny's cock again, this time just through his boxers, and gives him a slow stroke. 

Groaning, Danny asks, "Do you really want me to shut up? Or do you want me to keep telling you what a bad, awful person you are for doing this?"

Steve catches Danny by the tie and pulls him into a crushing kiss. 

Danny gets with the program then, falling quiet and helping Steve get him undressed. They fall onto Danny's pull out mattress, both still in their underwear. The feeling of Danny's chest against his as Steve pulls Danny onto him is overwhelming enough. Steve's not sure he would survive it if he and Danny were completely naked. 

"Danny," Steve sighs, grinding up against Danny's leg and arching his neck so Danny can better kiss and suck at the skin there. He grabs the fantastic globes of Danny's ass, pulling him closer, closer. 

Steve feels smothered in Danny, and it's the best he's felt in months. When he comes, it's in his boxers, his nose breathing deep the scent of Danny's skin. His orgasm is more intense than the ones he's had with Catherine have been for awhile.

He's not sure how he's going to go back to her when she asks.

"Fuck, fuck," Danny growls, rolling onto his side. He grabs Steve's hand and pushes down his boxers, wrapping Steve's hand around his cock. It's oddly satisfying to stroke a cock that isn't his own, and Steve's just getting around to wondering what it tastes like when Danny groans low and deep. He comes all over Steve's hip, and his wrist, and the bed, and his own fuzzy belly. 

Steve has his wrist halfway to his mouth to lick it, when he realizes he can't. He really doubts Danny has anything contagious, but Steve has been learning about the risks of sex outside the program since he was thirteen years old. He wipes off his arm on the sheets below him instead. 

He thinks about getting up, about putting his clothes back on and going home, but the compound doesn't feel half as safe as Danny's shitty bed in his shitty apartment. Steve tucks his arm around Danny and kisses Danny's shoulder as he falls asleep.

~*~

Danny lays awake, staring at the ceiling. God, he's such a pushover when it comes to relationships. Danny had seen this thing with Steve coming, ever since Steve started giving him those soul-searching looks of his. And Danny is only human, okay? 

Still, he should've held back. He should've sent Steve home, back to the woman carrying Steve's baby, and the other woman who's supposed to carry Steve's baby. Danny shouldn't have gotten involved. 

Except Steve is Danny's friend. He's the closest friend, aside from Chin, that Danny has made since moving to this godforsaken island. Steve is Danny's friend, and Danny can't help but get involved when his friends are in trouble. Granted, "getting involved" hasn't meant "dry hump like teenagers" before today. 

Danny looks over at Steve in the light coming through his window from the parking lot. Steve's passed out, drying come in his boxers and drool trickling out of his mouth and onto Danny's shoulder. Danny _should_ find Steve gross, but he doesn't in the same way he never found Rachel's morning breath gross. 

It's been not even six months since Danny met Steve, and it occurs to Danny that he's already half in love with the bastard. God damn it. 

Danny is too old for the whole casual sex rigamarole, and he's never been particularly good at sharing. What is he supposed to do? Let Steve use him, the way ASEP uses Steve? Call this a one-time deal and try like hell to forget about it? Try to be with Steve, only to have to share him with whoever ASEP puts in his bed? Leave his job with Five-0? Leave the whole fucking state? 

That last option is seriously sounding like the best one, if it didn't mean also leaving Grace behind. Of all the things Danny cannot do, leaving behind his baby girl is at the top of the list. Danny looks over at Steve and _hates_ him for even making Danny consider the option.

Of course, the hatred only lasts for one sharp moment, and then Danny stupidly forgives Steve. Steve doesn't even have to do anything to earn Danny's forgiveness, except lie there and let Danny look at him. Danny's heart clenches tightly and so help him God, he is well and truly fucked.

He can see it all now. Just like with Rachel, it'll be hot in the beginning, and then they'll have to start facing the consequences. With Rachel, it was the giddiness of their relationship pushing them into a marriage neither one of them was ready for. With Steve, it's going to be the family Steve is supposed to have.

Like, Danny is friends with Kono. He likes her so much, he thinks he wouldn't mind sharing Steve with her on a temporary basis. But Danny has seen the way Catherine looks at Steve. She looks at him like he belongs to her—Danny _knows_ that look. It's the look he gave Rachel more and more often as she started slipping away from him, even though he let himself slip away as well. 

And it's not like Danny needs Catherine to like him. He doesn't give a shit about that. What Danny gives a shit about is letting Steve string him along, like Steve's not going to go back to Catherine when she has his baby, when she needs him in ways Steve can't even imagine right now. Danny gives a shit about not wrecking Steve's family before it's even really begun. 

There's no way Steve has thought this through to its inevitable conclusion. He came here upset, and just _decided_ sex with Danny was a good way of working through it. And Danny wanted Steve so much, he didn't think through the consequences either.

If Danny wasn't in his own house, he'd gather up his things and leave. It would make everything easier in the morning. Then again, Steve isn't going to want to talk about this the way Danny does, so leaving would just give Steve an out. As much as Danny wants to hold Steve close and be gentle with him, he also wants to give Steve the talking-to of the century.

Danny stares up at the ceiling and rehearses his words.

~*~

Kono can understand why Mary doesn't want to be alone right now, but honestly, Kono is exhausted. She excuses herself to the bathroom and sits there, her head in her hands. She's missing training _again_ today, which means asking Uncle to ask for _another_ favor to get the instructor to help her make up the hours on the weekend. It's not the end of the world, and Kono's extremely relieved that Mary's okay, and she's heartbroken for the family of the guard who lost his life protecting them. But, it also feels like Kono's never going to finish her program. There's only a couple weeks left, and then she'll officially be a police officer. 

Of course, that's assuming they let her take the final exams, and assuming she passes them. Kono had been so confident going in, and she knows she'll make a good cop, but there's this part of her brain that keeps telling her she spent too much of her life on surfing. She's never going to be good for anything else.

A knock on the bathroom door draws Kono out of her head. "Hey, it's me," says Catherine. "You okay?"

Standing up, Kono opens the door and steps back so Catherine can join her in the bathroom. Closing the door again, Kono says, "I just would rather be at school right now."

"I know what you mean." Catherine sighs and leans against the bathroom counter. "I'd rather be out in the field, catching the bastards that did this." She shivers visibly. "You and I both could've been killed in our sleep."

"Or taken, like Mary was," Kono adds, wrapping her arms around herself. "Do you know if Steve is supposed to come back here with us?"

"Supposed to," Catherine says with a nod. "I don't think he will, though. I've worked with him before. When he's on the hunt like this, he's like a dog with a bone."

Kono nods and pouts at the door, thinking brother and sister are entirely too alike in that regard. "D'you think if I tell her I've got lots of homework, she'll stop trying to talk to me?" Kono's sure a nice, long stretch of silence will help her work through this stubborn fear in her heart.

"Who, Mary?" Catherine asks, the edges of her lips tilting upward.

Kono nods.

"I'll run interference with her, if you want," Catherine offers, and Kono can't help but throw her arms around Catherine.

"Yes, thank you," Kono says against Catherine's shoulder. Catherine chuckles and hugs Kono back, brushing her hand through the ends of Kono's hair for a long several moments. It's soothing, and Kono thinks that Catherine's probably going to be a great mom. 

~*~

Steve awakes when a damp, if warm, washcloth hits his face. 

"Wake up, sunshine."

"What the hell, Danny?" Steve cries, pulling the cloth from his face and glaring at his partner, who's standing at the end of the bed, already dressed. He looks pissed.

Sheepishly, because Steve has no idea what he did to deserve Danny's wrath, Steve gets out of Danny's fold-out bed. His boxers are stuck pretty painfully everywhere, and Steve figures that's what the damp cloth is probably for. 

"What— Uh," Steve says, twisting the cloth in his hands. "What's going on?"

Danny sets his jaw for a second before replying. "We need to have a talk, and I need you to be dressed during said talk, so if you would please…" He picks up Steve's pants from the night before and holds them out with one hand, the other hand gesturing toward the bathroom.

Steve still feels clueless, but he knows better than to fight Danny on this. He heads for the bathroom, uses the cloth to help unstick his boxers from his skin and hair, and then jumps in the shower for good measure. It doesn't take long to scrub off, even though Danny's soap is softer than the bar Steve's used to and keeps deforming in his grip. 

He puts his pants on without underwear, which is uncomfortable enough; when he heads back into the main room of Danny's apartment, the look Danny gives him just makes him more uncomfortable. He sits on the arm of Danny's couch and asks, "Okay, so what's up?"

Danny throws Steve's shirt at him. "Put that on."

"Just out with it, Danny," Steve cries, even though he puts on the shirt as asked. It smells like yesterday's sweat and feels tacky against his skin.

"You," Danny says, pointing his finger at Steve. "You did what you did last night, and…" He huffs, putting his hands on his hips. "You shouldn't have done that."

Frowning, Steve crosses his arms. "Shouldn't have done _what_ , exactly?" he demands, watching Danny pace across the room. "You know, it takes two to tango, Danno."

"That," Danny says, pointing at the fold-out bed, "was not the tango, Steven. And I'm not the one with the government-appointed family to think of."

Steve clenches his jaw, really not in the mood for Danny's criticism du jour when it comes to ASEP. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means…" Danny huffs again, and Steve's phone rings, sitting on the table across the room. "It means, I'm _pissed_ at you, is what it means."

Steve crosses the room to grab his phone, thinking this is the weirdest morning after he's ever experienced. He should've known it would be like this with Danny. "You're always pissed at me," he says, picking up his phone. "McGarrett."

Chin's voice says, "Steve. We got prints back on the toolbox. You'll never guess who's prints we found."

"Hiro Noshimuri?" Steve asks, his heartbeat stepping up a few notches at the prospect.

"Bingo."

Looking around for his socks and shoes, Steve asks, "I want a location on Hiro as soon as possible."

"He's got an eight o'clock tee time on the books. I'll text you the address."

"Perfect," Steve replies, sitting down to pull on his boots. "C'mon. We've got to go to work."

Danny frowns and narrows his eyes, but ultimately points at Steve and says, "We're not done talking about this."

"Yeah, okay," Steve says, mostly to get Danny to shut up and get out the door. "We've got the proof to arrest Hiro. There's no way I'm letting him slip through my fingers now."

~*~

"We are talking about this," Danny says, sitting down in the chair on the other side of Steve's desk. 

Steve feigns ignorance as he replies, "Talking about what?"

With a frown, Danny huffs and shifts in his chair. "You know _what_ , Steven."

Looking around at the glass walls of his office, Steve insists, "It seems a little inappropriate to talk about this at work."

"Oh, _now_ you're the picture of propriety?" Danny cries. "Where was this attitude when you were sticking your tongue down my throat because a bad guy hurt your feelings?"

Steve can't be sure if Danny's so far off the mark it's laughable, or if his words are bitingly insightful. His inability to decide which it is just makes Steve frustrated, and pissed off. Through clenched teeth, Steve asks, "What do you want from me, Danny?"

Danny licks his lips and leans forward, his palm on Steve's desk, "I just want a little bit of acknowledgement that last night, you used me to make yourself feel better. Maybe an apology."

"That's not—" Steve says, cutting himself off when he has to wonder if Danny's right. He can't be right, can he? No. Danny's way off base here. "I just wanted you."

"So you go around taking whatever you want?" Danny asks, throwing his hands wide as he sits back in his chair. "Damn the consequences? You want something, you're gonna have it? That's how a spoiled child acts, not a damn grown adult."

Steve's jaw tightens and his nostrils flare as he stares at Danny, wondering what the fuck happened. "I didn't _take_ anything you weren't giving me."

Danny shakes his head and throws up his hands. "See? This is what ASEP does to people. Gets you thinking there's this disconnect between the physical act and the mental repercussions." Danny gets out of his chair, but paces away from the door, rather than toward it. 

"What mental repercussions?" Steve asks, really watching as Danny paces, hunched in on himself and pinching his bottom lip. "Are you saying you regret what happened? Is that what this is?" Steve stands, rounding the desk to confront Danny. "You don't like the decision you made, and now you're blaming _me_ for it?"

"Yes, I'm blaming you!" Danny shouts, stepping closer. "Been told all your life you're a better version of humanity, haven't you? Oh, look at the perfect soldier! He's been _bred_ for this, like livestock!" Danny's spitting his words now and it takes all of Steve's strength to hold his fists at his sides and not let them loose on Danny's face. "Well let me tell you something, babe. The government may have done right by the packaging," he waves a hand at Steve's body, "but they fucked up the brains."

"Danny," Steve growls in warning, taking an unintentional step toward his partner. 

Danny doesn't even have the decency to look scared. "How hard is it for you?" Danny asks, his hands doing a complicated dance now. "Really? How hard? To admit that you did wrong by making me think, even for a few minutes, that I could have this one thing? How hard is it to apologize?" There's a sadness in Danny's eyes that wasn't there a moment ago.

Confusion starts to overcome Steve's anger. "What one thing?"

Danny stares at Steve for a long moment, his chin jutted out and his eyes shiny. Finally, he says, "You. You made me think I could have you, when I can't."

"Danny—" Steve starts, taking a step toward him until Danny cuts him off with an upraised hand. 

"Not in the way I need, anyway," Danny mutters. Without giving Steve a chance to respond, Danny shakes his head and leaves the office. 

Steve watches as Danny doesn't even stop at his own desk before leaving through the main doors, not even one glance back. He's still staring at the empty doorway when Chin leans into the office. 

"What was that all about?"

After meeting Chin's eyes for just a brief second, Steve looks back toward the door and admits, "I think I fucked up."

~*~

Danny doesn't come back to HQ that day, and Steve wonders if he's going to come back at all. Eventually, a Private with an ASEP badge knocks on Steve's door. "Commander McGarrett? I'm here to take you home, sir. Security at the compound has been restored, and they'd like to make sure you make it home safe tonight."

Steve narrows his eyes at the man. "I'm working a big case. I can't go home right now."

The private shrugs. "I was just given orders, sir."

Frowning, Steve picks up his phone and motions the Private closer. "Let me see your badge."

The private gives Steve his ASEP badge, as well as his Army identification. Steve makes a call, and asks on the woman who answers, "This is Lieutenant Commander McGarrett. Did your office send Private Benjamin Grossman to pick me up?"

"Let me check, sir," the voice says. 

When the line comes back, Steve recognizes Corporal Whitesides's voice. "Commander. I sent Private Grossman. I understand your suspicion, given recent events, but he has been fully-vetted by my office."

"I'm sure he has," Steve replies, handing Private Grossman's ID back to him. "But why the ride, all of a sudden? I can get myself home when I'm done here."

"You brought in the men responsible for the break-in, and for Mary's kidnapping," Whitesides says, her voice careful. "Commander, your work with the governor's task force is commendable, but your primary duty right now is to ASEP."

"Don't you think I know that?" Steve snaps, pulling the phone away from his face for a moment while he collects his composure. Of course his primary duty is to ASEP. It always has been, and it's even more important now that Freddie is gone. It's just...this case against Noshimuri, and against the governor feels more important _right now_. Steve supposes last night Danny felt more important, too. 

God, Steve really has fucked this up. He let his _emotions_ get in the way of his duty to his family. He hasn't even talked to Mary since he sent her to the safe house, not to mention Catherine and Kono. With a sigh, Steve says, "Sorry, Corporal. I'll— I'm on my way home now."

"Good," she says, her tone a little brighter. "I'm going to go ahead and send someone to the compound in the morning, for you to talk to about this invasion of your home. We'll make it feel safe again, Commander. I promise."

Steve rolls his eyes, but says, "Yeah, thanks," and hangs up. He passes Private Grossman and says, "C'mon, sport. I'm driving."

"But—" Grossman tries to say. Steve doesn't give him the opportunity. 

~*~

Of all the people Danny expects to find him at the hole-in-the-wall tavern two blocks from his apartment, Chin Ho Kelly is not one of them. Maybe Danny should've expected it. After all, he and Chin have been partners for almost a year, first at HPD, and now at Five-0. 

Chin sits down next to Danny, and tells the bartender, "I'll have the same," pointing to Danny's beer.

Chin seems content to wait silently and drink his beer, which leaves it to Danny to talk first. "How much did you hear?" Danny asks, wincing as he looks over and tries to get a read on Chin's expression.

"Didn't actually hear anything," Chin insists, setting down his bottle and thumbing a loose edge of the label. "Looked like quite the fight, though."

"Think HPD will take me back?"

Chin laughs. "The only reason they didn't fire your _haole_ ass after the first month was because I asked them not to."

Danny looks over at Chin in disbelief. "You did that for me?"

"You're a good cop, Danny," Chin insists, setting a heavy hand on Danny's shoulder. "And a good partner, and a good father. I thought you deserved the chance."

"And what about now?" Danny asks. 

"Now you and I are both traitors," Chin replies with a deep chuckle. "We abandoned HPD for the flashy new governor's task force. I don't think my word is gonna hold up as well as it once did."

Danny sighs. "You think I could get McGarrett fired, or do you think his immunity covers sexual harassment?"

"Sexual— What?" Chin asks, his eyebrows halfway up his forehead. "What happened? Steve sexually harassed you?"

"No," Danny replies. "I don't know. I was dumb enough to sleep with him when he asked."

"Oh, Danny." Chin sounds both sympathetic and disappointed. Danny can't say he blames him.

"Yeah, well. Now everything's fucked." He nudges Chin. "Be grateful Malia didn't stick with ASEP. You don't have to share her with some perfect soldier, who's going to father her perfect babies."

"You know what Malia likes to say about ASEP?" Chin asks, a smile playing on the edges of his lips.

"What?"

"That we, people as a species, took the wolf and made it into a _pug_." Chin makes that face he always does when he's telling a joke, and it works, because Danny can't help but laugh.

Shaking his finger at Chin, Danny says, "Tell your fiancée that she's a very wise woman." He sighs. "And maybe get her to talk to her brother. Talk him out of the whole thing."

Chin presses his lips together, like he wants to say something. 

"What?" Danny asks. 

Chin takes a long drink of his beer, and then admits, "Kono got an advance from ASEP. Between her mother's aneurism and our aunt's kidney failure…" He sighs. "Nobody in the family had that kind of money."

"Shit," Danny says, shaking his head. "Even if they let her pay it back in cash, it's probably more than…"

"It's close to half a million, Danny." Chin gives him a sad look. "It would take her whole career as a cop to pay that off. And if Steve backs out—"

"Who knows what sort of asshole they'd put her with next." Danny swallows against the bile rising in his throat. "See? The whole system is exploitative and wrong. What if someday Grace runs into money trouble? I don't want her to think the way out is to have a couple kids with some guy she doesn't even love!"

"Amen, brother," Chin replies, holding out his beer for Danny to clink his own bottle against. 

Danny thinks about the situation for a few minutes as he finishes the last of his beer. "Why does it always seem like I can never have what I want? Can't have Jersey, because my daughter's here. Can't have Steve. Can't have my job, because Steve's there. Can't go groveling back to HPD. Why me?"

"Just lucky, I guess," Chin replies. He gives Danny a smile and says, "Hey. Why don't I talk to my cousin Sid, in Organized Crime? Maybe he can put in a good word."

"Thanks, buddy," Danny says, a smile for Chin as he stands up and sets a few bills on the bar. "I'd appreciate it."

"We'd miss you at Five-0." Chin's smile is careful, and a bit sad.

Danny claps Chin on the shoulder. "Hey. I'll miss you, too."

Danny goes back home and lays on his bed, and tries not to notice the way it still reeks of Steve.

~*~

Steve hops out of the Army jeep and tosses the keys to Private Grossman. Approaching the guard booth, he sees two guards crowded in there, instead of the usual one. "Private Suarez," he says with a nod. "Who's your friend?"

"SPC Laskin, Commander," the new guy says, standing up a little straighter. "We're tightening security at night. Two guards in the gatehouse and a patrol around the perimeter. The alarms and phone lines have also been repaired."

Steve nods, wondering if ASEP really thinks this is going to make much of a difference. "Yeah, well. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, sir," the two Army boys say in unison.

Steve wanders through the front gate. He checks on his truck, and then heads toward his house, intent on getting some fresh clothes before he talks to anyone else. He managed to grab a pair of boxers from his desk at work, but the rest of his clothes are two days old. 

The lights in his house are on, and Steve wonders if that was a mistake, or if someone is in there, using them. Opening the front door, Steve smells popcorn right away. The TV is on, and Mary's sitting on the couch, turned to look at him. "Hey."

"Hey," Steve replies, sitting on the couch next to his sister. "How're you doing?"

"Kind of doubting I'm ever going to sleep again, to be honest," she says, handing Steve the bowl of popcorn, which he takes, his stomach grumbling. 

"Maybe you should head back to LA," Steve says, taking a handful of popcorn and shoving it in his mouth. "At least you'd be farther away from what's going on here."

"Yeah," Mary says, eyes downcast. "There's less protection in LA, though. I saw what Dad wrote about Freddie's death being tied up in this. What if—"

"There's no evidence to prove that," Steve tells her. "Fred and I were on a dangerous mission. Sometimes missions go bad."

"But what if it _is_ true? What if someone is trying to get back at Dad, or Doris, and they're doing it through us?"

Steve watches Mary chew on her thumbnail. "So you want to stay here?"

"God, no!" Mary cries. "I mean, I love you, bro. It's been great to see you, and Dad, and Malia, but I can't stay here!" A dark look crosses her face. "Maybe I'll try to get an ASEP placement in LA."

"Okay, no," Steve says, moving to better see Mary's face. "You hate ASEP! You always have. You can't just…"

"Accept my fate?" Mary asks with a sad chuckle.

"Mary." Steve pulls on her chin so she'll look at him. "It's not worth it. Whatever sense of safety, or duty you think you might gain. It's not worth giving up yourself."

With a frown, Mary stares at him for a moment, and then says, "Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my brother? You've always been gung-ho about this. The family, the status, the _honor_. What changed?"

Steve sighs and sits back in the couch, dropping his head back and closing his eyes. "I do still want the family," he admits. He's been dreaming about having lots of kids since he was a kid himself. And Steve _does_ still want that, so bad it hurts that he doesn't have it yet. "It's just— It requires a lot of sacrifice. If you're not 100% in, you should stay out."

Mary turns, resting her elbow on the back of the couch, and her head in her hand. She gives Steve a wicked grin. "It sounds to me like you've got first-hand knowledge of this sacrifice bit. What did you give up on, bro?"

Steve narrows his eyes at Mary and gives her a frown. "My SEAL career."

"They were gonna pull you this year anyway," Mary insists, her regard entirely too calculating for Steve's comfort. "What did you really give up?"

Steve doesn't even want to _think_ about Danny, much less confess what happened with him to Mary. He gets to his feet and says, "I need a change of clothes before I go check on Catherine and Kono. We'll talk more about LA in the morning."

As Steve makes his escape up the stairs, Mary calls after him, "Chicken!"

Steve shakes away a smile. 

~*~

It's getting late when Steve taps on Catherine's door, so he's not surprised that she looks half-asleep when she answers it. "Hey, Steve."

Confused by the fondness Steve feels for Catherine, given what just happened the night before with Danny, Steve smiles and reaches for her. He winds his arms around Catherine and says softly, "I didn't mean to wake you up."

"I'm so tired these days," she says with a tentative, sleepy chuckle. "Come lay down with me?"

"Yeah, okay," Steve replies, letting Catherine lead him by the hand toward her bed. 

He kicks off his shoes and settles in behind her, kissing Catherine's shoulder and holding her close as she falls back asleep. He wonders why this feels so right with Catherine, when it felt so right with Danny, too.

Steve's too anxious to sleep, despite the fact that his body needs it. When Catherine drops into a heavy sleep, he slips out of bed and leaves her cabin. 

Maybe a run on his treadmill will do him good. 

As Steve heads up the short path to his house, he notices that Kono's lights are still on. He's walking toward her place before he consciously decides to do so. 

Kono opens the door just a few moments after Steve's knock, wearing shorts and a tank top like she had been the morning before. A yellow highlighter is perched over her right ear. "Studying?" he asks, pointing to it.

Kono smiles and takes the highlighter down, making room for Steve to move through the door. "Final exams are next week," she says, returning to her little kitchenette table, which is strewn with books and papers. "I'm gonna crush 'em."

Steve laughs. "Yeah, I'm sure you are." He thinks about saying goodnight, and leaving her to her studying, but he can't bring himself to do it. He sits on her couch instead. "Hell of a couple of days."

"For sure," she says, leaning in the kitchenette doorway. "You look like a man who needs a beer."

"God, yes," Steve says, his mouth watering already at the thought. "You got any?"

Steve hears the fridge open, and then close and Kono comes back into the room with two Longboards in her hands. "I could use a study break," she says with a grin.

~*~

As Kono sits next to Steve, drinking with him and watching a stupid game show on TV, she thinks he looks sad. She wants to ask him if he's sad about what happened to Mary, or if something else is going on, but she's not quite sure how to phrase that question. 

Maybe he just needs some hugs. 

Kono sets down the remaining third of her beer and snuggles close to Steve, putting his arm around her shoulders, and her arm across his chest so she can hug him. Steve chuckles, and hugs her back, stopping just long enough to set aside his beer. 

Steve holds Kono close for another long moment, and then she feels his hand brushing her hair back behind her ear. The touch tickles, and makes Kono shiver. 

"Sorry," Steve says, starting to pull away from her. 

Kono already misses the feel of his body against hers, before he's even left, so she grabs his arm to keep him close. "Hey," she tells Steve, giving him a smile and putting his hand back behind her ear. "It's okay."

Steve's hand is warm and big against Kono's neck, and maybe it's just been a long almost-year since she last got laid, but she _wants_ him. And she's allowed, right? She's almost done with the academy, and being with Steve is the whole reason she's here in the first place. 

The only thing would be if Steve doesn't want her back. Kono knows it's his _job_ to do this, but she wouldn't feel right if he didn't want to. 

Carefully, Kono traces the edge of Steve's face with her thumb, watching as he closes his eyes. He trusts her, and she wants him even more. 

Leaning up to meet him, Kono places a kiss on Steve's lips. The first time she kissed him was almost six months ago, and she hasn't kissed him since. He's just as responsive as before, but this time he pulls Kono a little closer, holds her a little tighter. He tastes like beer, but so does she, and it seems fitting after the last few days.

Skip the NC-17 part

Gasping against Steve's mouth as her body _aches_ sharply and suddenly, Kono climbs into Steve's lap. He welcomes Kono with his hands heavy on her waist, sliding them down to her ass. His hands grasp her ass cheeks, just enough pressure to know he's there, not enough to be uncomfortable. It's almost like Steve is trying to judge the size of her ass just by feel.

Kono knows she's mostly angles, even compared to Catherine, so she decides to distract Steve by taking off her shirt. Not that her breasts are all that curvy either, but in Kono's experience, men rarely have complaints about them.

Steve is no different, his eyes going wide, then dark and half-lidded as he pulls her into another kiss. Kono grips at Steve's t-shirt, pulling it from him and scooting closer, so her belly and chest are pressed against him. She presses her face against Steve's neck and wraps an arm around his shoulders, needing him as close as possible. 

Steve pushes at Kono's shorts, and she reluctantly lets go, standing so she can kick them off. When she looks at Steve, he's watching her with this soft, almost sad look in his eyes. "Do you—" she starts to ask, but Steve cuts her off by reaching for her. 

"C'mere," he says gently with a nod of his head as he uses his free hand to push down the board shorts he's wearing. His cock is dusky red and laying up against his belly, just about long enough to cover the entire strip of dark hair that reaches to his navel.

Kono straddles Steve's lap, his skin hot against hers, and settles down. He takes a sharp breath when she drops further, the shaft of his cock nestled between the lips of her pussy. 

As Kono kisses Steve, she grinds her hips down, putting pressure against her clit and making Steve take another sharp breath. He holds her close, his hands running up her thighs and then around to her back before retracing their path in the other direction. Kono feels herself get wetter, the slide against Steve's cock slicker and easier. "God," she groans, pressing her forehead to Steve's shoulder and reaching down to grasp his cock in her hand. 

"Can I?" Kono asks, pulling Steve's cock away from his body and at a better angle to slip inside herself. "Steve?"

Steve's eyes are barely open when he meets hers. He nods and licks his lips. "Yeah."

It doesn't take much effort before Steve's cock slides into Kono, just the right amount of pressure stretching her out. She uses the muscles in her thighs to edge down slowly, hands on Steve's shoulders for balance. 

The groan Steve gives her makes Kono smile and kiss him as she raises up again. Sparks of pleasure wash through Kono, and she can't help but chase the rhythm that gets her closer and closer to the edge.

It's been a long enough dry spell that it's barely a minute before Kono comes. She shudders, pressing her face against Steve's shoulder and grinding down onto him to make the feeling last. 

"Jesus," Steve groans through clenched teeth, his hands clenching Kono's hips as she moves.

Smiling, Kono raises up her hips, holding the tip of Steve's cock inside her and pausing there, watching Steve's face. It takes him a second, but eventually he opens his eyes to look at her, his brow furrowed until he appears to realize that Kono is teasing him. 

He's smirking as he growls, "Kono…"

"What?" she asks, putting on as innocent an expression as she can while having sex.

Steve pulls Kono into a deep, rough kiss that makes her shudder and slip back down onto his cock, the friction in her pussy almost overwhelming.

Without warning, Steve flips Kono down onto the couch and thrusts into her, _hard_. Kono groans and arches her back, sparks lighting up behind her squeezed-shut eyes. "This okay?" Steve asks, his voice in a whisper right next to her ear.

Shuddering and digging her nails into Steve's back, Kono nods. "Yeah. Fuck, yeah."

Steve drops his head against Kono's shoulder and breathes heavily as he drives into her, more like a man on a mission than a man intent on enjoying himself. Still, he adjusts his angle until he's found the one that makes Kono cry out and brace her heel against the couch cushion to better push back against Steve.

Another, smaller orgasm shudders through Kono, and as she clenches down on Steve, she can feel the way his cock pulses and jumps inside her. He lets out a breath he'd been holding, a deep rush of air against Kono's chest.

As Kono runs her hand up and down Steve's back, he feels more tense than a man who's just had an orgasm should feel. It's disconcerting, to say the least. Before Kono can ask what's wrong, Steve kisses her shoulder and kneels back, drawing out of her carefully. He sits on the far end of the couch and closes his eyes, breathing deeply.

Sitting up next to Steve, Kono rests her chin on her arm and looks over at him. He looks calmer now, maybe, but still sad. "It was that bad, huh?" Kono asks, giving Steve a smile so he'll understand she's joking.

Steve looks at Kono for a second before giving a huff of a chuckle. "No, it was good," he says, pulling Kono closer and resting his cheek on the top of her head. "I promise."

"Then why do you look like someone ate your ice cream?" Kono asks, pressing her ear to Steve's chest and listening to his heart thump.

Kono's head rises and falls as Steve sighs. 

"Is it because I'm not Catherine?"

A sharp breath through Steve's nose ruffles the hair on the back of Kono's head. "No," he says finally. "It's because I did something to one of my friends. I'm not sure how to fix it."

"Which friend?" Kono asks, curious enough to sit up and watch Steve's face. "As far as I've seen, you only _have_ two friends. Chin and Danny. Which one was it?"

Steve narrows his eyes at Kono. "When did you get so observant?"

"I _am_ in the police academy," she replies, reaching for her shirt. This no longer seems like a conversation one should have while naked. "I'll find out which one it was eventually. All I have to do is call—"

"It was Danny," Steve says quickly, reaching for his clothes as well. He pulls them on before he starts talking again. Leaning forward, his forearms resting on his knees and hands clasped together, Steve admits, "I took advantage of his friendship. I was selfish. He's never going to speak to me again."

Kono finishes pulling on her shorts and sits back down next to Steve. "What could you have possibly done?" she asks. "He's pretty much your best friend."

The look Steve gives Kono is a few shades past sheepish, and she could swear his cheeks darken, but that could just be a flush left from their recent activities. Clearing his throat, Steve mutters, "It was easier when my brother was my best friend."

Kono almost asks why his brother is no longer his best friend, when she remembers it's been just over six months since Freddie McGarrett was killed in battle. Shit.

"Well," Kono tells Steve, holding onto his arm and leaning on his shoulder. "Out here in the real world, where we have friends outside our family, we do this thing called _apologizing_. If you do it right, it usually works."

Steve nods for a few seconds and then stops, looking over at Kono sharply. "And look at me. Taking advantage of another friend…"

With a laugh, Kono squeezes Steve's arm. "I'm pretty sure I took advantage of _you_ here, Steve."

A smile breaking out across his face _finally_ , Steve laughs too. "No, I meant treating you like my therapist."

"Tell you what," Kono says, hugging Steve's arm harder. "You bring me dinner tomorrow, and listen to me bitch about school, and we'll call it even."

"I can do that," Steve replies, the edges of his lips turned upward in a tiny smile. "Yeah. I can do that."

~*~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter in another two weeks!


	5. February – April 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A reconciliation, a death, and some exciting news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: brief vomiting mentioned, canonical minor character death

Danny wakes up to knocking on his door. He'd shout for the person to just go the fuck away, if it wasn't for the chance that it could be Rachel, dropping Grace off due to an emergency. He stumbles out of bed, running a hand back through his hair, and opens the door wearing just his sleep shorts.

"Of course it's you," Danny says, closing the door in Steve's face. He walks away from the door, and regrets not locking it again when Steve lets himself into the apartment.

"I have to talk to you," Steve says, closing the door again behind him.

With a scoff, Danny heads toward the kitchen half of his tiny apartment and pulls the coffee grounds out of the cupboard. "I quit, so no you don't have to talk to me, Steven."

Steve leans against the counter, like he doesn't know how good he looks doing it. "You can't quit, Danny. Please? Not because of me."

"Yes, because of you," Danny insists, scooping grounds into the coffee maker and all but pushing Steve out of the way so he can get to the sink. "How am I supposed to be there everyday? How am I supposed to know you've got my back, when—"

"Danny," Steve says, catching Danny by the arm and forcefully meeting Danny's eyes. "I'm _sorry_." He stares into Danny's eyes for another second before repeating himself. "I'm sorry. I was so focused on finally figuring out how I felt about you…" He shakes his head. "But I've always got your back, Danny. You just tell me what you need, and I can do that."

Danny studies Steve's face carefully. He knows what liars look like. He reads people for a living, for fuck's sake. Standing here, looking at Steve, Danny's not quite sure if his feelings for Steve are clouding his judgement. They certainly did when Rachel was cheating on him before the divorce.

Steve _seems_ sincere, but he still doesn't realize he's lying. "But you can't do what I need, can you, Steve? And I won't ask you to." He sighs and finishes pouring the water into the coffee maker, stabbing the buttons until it starts going. Rubbing at his eyes, Danny asks Steve, "D'you know how much money Kono is on the hook for if you skip out on her?"

Frowning, Steve shakes his head.

"What would happen to Catherine?" Danny asks, leaning back against the counter and crossing his arms. "And her baby? If you left the program, would you ever get to see them again?"

His jaw set stubbornly, Steve crosses his arms, too. "I'm not leaving the program, Danny."

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Danny asks. "Torture myself by putting myself next to you all day every day? Just as friends?" He scoffs at the idea, watching Steve shift his weight from one foot to the other sheepishly. "Wait for ten years, while you build this family of yours and you try _not_ to fall in love with any of the mothers of your children? Be your _secret_? Your piece on the side?"

Steve looks away, out past the main room and through the foggy windows. His nostrils flare and he frowns, but he holds his ground. "I know you don't understand the duties I have—"

"I understand _responsibilities_ ," Danny insists. "I don't understand how you can be okay with the government owning your sex life. It's the most private thing two people can do together, and you've got ASEP goons telling you who to do it with and when."

Steve's brow furrows, and he looks like he's going to say something stupid again.

"Putting aside the whole experimental human breeding program issue," Danny says, using his hands for emphasis. "Why can't they just go the turkey-baster route, huh? You jack off into a cup, hand it over to the nice lady, and go about your day with the person you want to be with. See? Nobody's feelings get hurt."

Throwing his arms wide, Steve replies, "Sex encourages pair-bonding, Danny!"

"Yeah, no shit," Danny replies. "And how does that help anyone?"

"It makes the family more stable." Steve sounds like he's reciting lines from a textbook, and Danny wonders what the hell kind of textbooks Steve grew up reading, because they certainly weren't the same ones Danny had.

"More stable, how?" Danny asks, wondering just how far he can push this before Steve explodes and finally leaves Danny the hell alone. "Because the way I see it, women—many times very vulnerable women—are paid by _our government_ for the use of their bodies. And you, Mr. Perfect Soldier Man, are paid in sex."

"I'm paid in _sex_?" Steve asks, his voice contemptuous, but Danny can see a glimmer of unease in Steve's eyes.

Danny nods, watching that glimmer spread ever so slightly. "Yeah. You keep with the program, be a good role model for your little soldier brood, and you have what? Two—Three? Four?—women at your beck-and-call at all times. Supposedly every straight man's dream. A nice little harem, just for you."

Steve's voice sounds a little less sure as he says, "Genetic diversity is important to the program."

"Except you can't have what you want, can you?" Danny asks, not sure whether he's feeling compassionate or cruel at this point. He steps closer to Steve, watching Steve's eyes darken and pretty sure he's going to get a fist in his mouth as he says, "You're a thoroughbred race horse, put out to stud." Steve flinches at the latter phrase, often used derogatorily toward ASEP patriarchs. "Just fenced in, told which brood mares to fuck and when, trying to relive the excitement of your racing days anyway you—"

Danny does not expect Steve to kiss him hungrily, pushing Danny back until his hips hit the kitchen counter. 

As suddenly as the kiss starts, it ends, Steve pulling back, his hands in his hair and his eyes wide as he says, "Shit, Danny! I'm sorry! I—"

Licking his lips, Danny separates himself from the counter at his back. "See? This is why we can't work together."

The devastated look on Steve's face makes Danny feel like a monster, but he's not going to apologize for protecting himself. 

His voice breaking as he speaks, Steve says, "I _can't_ leave them. It's not just for me, or for Catherine, or Kono." He wipes at his mouth, looking away from Danny for a second before turning back. "It's for the sacrifice Freddie made, so I could come home. It's for the fact that he's never going to have the family he wanted. It's for my grandfather, who died at Pearl Harbor, and who believed in this program. It's for my country, because they deserve to have the best possible soldiers fighting for them."

Danny wants to ask how Steve could possibly be egotistic enough to believe that his children will be better soldiers than anyone else's kids, but he's afraid he already knows the answer. "Fine," he says to Steve. "You want the life you want. You're going to have to live with the fact that there's no room for me in it."

The look that passes Steve's face scares Danny, because it looks less like a man coming to terms with his situation, and more like one accepting a challenge. With a sharp nod, Steve says, "Well, if you ever change your mind, your spot at Five-0 will be waiting for you."

Steve nods again, and then he's gone, the screen door banging shut behind him. The coffee maker beeps, and Danny pours himself a mug, fighting the urge to call after Steve, begging him to come back. He feels a little like he did when Rachel packed him a bag and shoved him out of the house, like he made a mistake by storming off to that shitty motel, by not waiting at least a few moments for Rachel to change her mind. What if this is the second time in Danny's life he's let something good get away?

No. Danny shakes his head and steels his resolve. He let Rachel walk all over him for months before he finally accepted it was over. He's not going to make the same mistake again.

~*~

Steve has his feet buried in the sand when Corporal Whitesides sits down next to him on the bench. "Commander McGarrett," she says, crossing her legs and putting her hands on her knee. "After last night, I figured you'd be back at work, bright and early again this morning."

"My partner quit on me," he tells Whitesides. "I can't do this without him."

She smiles, indulgently like you would at a child. "I'm sure you can find another Detective with the skills requ—"

"No," Steve says, cutting her off. "I can't do _this_ ," he motions back and forth between her and himself, "without him. It's not working. I don't want either of my assigned partners the way I want him."

"Ah," she says, and Steve wonders just how close to a court-martial he's skirting, here. "You want out of your contract."

Shaking his head, Steve says, "No. I just…" He sighs, trying to figure out how to best word this. "I'll keep providing _genetic material_ , and I'll be a great dad to those kids. I just want permission to bring Detective Williams in as my primary partner."

Whitesides nods, "I see." She frowns for a moment, looking out at the ocean beyond the beach. "And what about your other partners? They signed up under the impression that you would be seeing to their needs. A simple donation of 'genetic material', as you put it, isn't going to fly. Especially with Lieutenant Rollins."

"You don't know—"

"I know what she's been saying to her counselor," Whitesides snaps, a harsh look on her face as she meets Steve's eyes. "I know she feels like you've been pulling away from her since she fell pregnant again."

Steve's heart drops, both at the complete lack of Catherine's privacy, and at the fact that he can't blame her for feeling this way. He has been pulling away from her lately, and he realizes now it's not just because he was busy with Five-0 and his father's case. It's because of how his feelings for Danny have been developing.

"Now, if you're saying you have certain _urges_..." The corporal's voice makes Steve feel like she thinks Steve's feelings for Danny are more akin to a strange fetish than anything else. "And that by indulging these urges, you'll do better at completing the duties you've been enlisted for, that's another story."

"Fine, yes," Steve replies, knowing that whatever half-assed measure Whitesides is about to propose isn't going to cut it with Danny. "That's what I'm saying. How do we make it work?"

She sighs, reaching into the bag at her hip and pulling out a card. "He'll have to be cleared medically, to make sure you won't put any of our assets at risk." Handing the card to Steve, Whitesides says, "Have him call that number and set up an appointment with our doctor. _If_ he's cleared and _if_ his presence doesn't have a negative impact on the household, we'll look the other way."

"Thank you," Steve says, pocketing the card and knowing it's not going to be enough. He stands up, his feet bare and sandy, his shoes in one hand. "Thanks."

Steve walks away from Corporal Whitesides, not quite convinced he hasn't just made everything worse.

~*~

Catherine checks her reflection one more time in the rearview mirror of her car, putting a few loose strands of hair back as well as she can. It was a long, exhausting day at work, despite the fact that she's desk-bound for the foreseeable future. If this graduation dinner wasn't so important to Kono, there's no way she would be here right now, rather than at home, in her pajamas, eating as many hot wings as Private Suarez would allow to be delivered to the compound.

At least Kono promised that she would be fed.

On the way into the restaurant, Catherine notices the ASEP guards in the unmarked car at a corner of the parking lot. There's no doubt another set of them inside, at the party. Catherine would like to say she's used to them—after all, they follow her home from base every night—but she's not. After two combat tours in Afghanistan, Catherine's sense of being watched or followed is hyper-developed, and she can't quite get it to believe that the ASEP guards are here only for her protection.

Once inside the restaurant, it's not difficult for Catherine to find the party room. It's full of cops in dress uniform, including Kono, who's sitting at a place of honor in the middle of the long table. She's surrounded by family—or at least people who look a lot like her—and happily telling a story to a woman who has to be her mother. To Catherine's right, she hears Steve call, "Hey, hey! There she is! Catherine!"

Steve pulls out the empty seat next to him, waving Catherine over. 

She goes, offering a friendly wave to Kono on her way, and is relieved to see an already-full plate of food sitting in front of the empty chair. "This is for me, right?" Catherine asks Steve as she sits.

"Yeah, of course," he replies, putting his arm around her shoulders and kissing her temple. It's the most affectionate he's been in awhile, and Catherine wonders if it has anything to do with the fact that they're in public. "Couldn't have you go hungry on my watch."

"Good," she replies with a smile for Steve, which he returns, making her heart skip a beat the way it always does around him. "That's one less you owe me, sailor."

Steve laughs, but his smile falters as he looks over her toward the door. A roll already in her mouth, Catherine turns to follow Steve's gaze, and sees Danny standing in the doorway. He's wearing a dress uniform and has a small gift clutched awkwardly in his hands. 

Before two seconds have passed, Danny's engulfed in a hug from a man she thinks is Chin Ho Kelly. He's been by the compound a few times, but not nearly as often as Danny has. At least until recently. 

Catherine feels Steve get to his feet behind her, but Chin shakes his head in their direction, waving Steve off as he directs Danny the other way around the table, toward Kono. Catherine turns to see Steve slump back down into his chair, pouting. Well, Catherine had just thought she was out of it, not seeing Danny around lately. Perhaps there's more to it.

Finishing her bite, Catherine leans toward Steve and says, "You look awfully glum for a man at a party."

Finishing off his whiskey with a slight wince, Steve smiles and says, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're such a bad liar," Catherine tells him with a laugh, taking a bite of beef roast.

The small man with glasses sitting on Catherine's left says, "Commander McGarrett has been particularly glum since Detective Williams left Five-0."

"Max!" Steve cries, holding his hands out wide in disbelief at what he must have perceived to be a betrayal.

"Wait," Catherine says, quickly chewing and swallowing her food. "Danny _left_? Why didn't you tell me?" 

Max leans closer and tells Catherine in a conspiratorial tone, "Word around town is that Detective Williams has joined the Organized Crime unit of HPD. Of course, this information is secondhand, and might be lacking in veracity."

Catherine's attention is drawn back to Steve when he scoffs. "What happened?"

Steve swallows and looks down at the remains of the dinner he's already eaten. "We had a falling out," Steve admits. "Danny decided he'd rather work somewhere I wasn't, and no matter how many times I apologize, he's not going to change his mind."

It hadn't escaped Catherine's notice how much Steve had started to behave with Danny the way he used to with Freddie. She'd thought maybe it was good for Steve to have someone new fill that hole in his life. To have lost that again…

Catherine's heart hurt for Steve, and she couldn't help but put her utensils down and pull him into a hug. "I'm sorry, sweetie."

Steve accepts the hug for a few seconds, but pulls away abruptly. When Catherine looks across the room, she notices Danny quickly looking away. That strikes Catherine as odd, but not quite as odd as the look on Kono's face just before she starts making her way around the room, heading for the door. Kono's jaw is set with grim determination, and her complexion is looking a little green, and suddenly Catherine knows what's going on.

Standing up, she grabs Steve by the face and tells him, "I'm coming back for the rest of this food. If you let anyone take it away, I will shoot you. Got it?"

Steve nods, eyes wide. "Got it. Where are you—"

"Bathroom," Catherine replies, letting go of Steve's face and following Kono from the back room and through the restaurant at large. She gets out of breath after a few yards, a consequence of the baby stealing the oxygen from her bloodstream. Mostly it just makes her feel weak, which she didn't expect at all.

When Catherine enters the women's room, she's not surprised to hear retching noises from the first stall. When the noises die down, Catherine says softly, "Hey, Kono. I'm here."

"Ugh," Kono says, flushing the toilet. 

Catherine wets a paper towel with warm water, and holds it out to Kono when she emerges. 

"Thanks," Kono replies, her voice rough. She dabs at her eyes and then wipes her mouth. Tossing the towel, she washes her hands quickly, and then ducks down to rinse out her mouth. Leaning against the counter, Kono pouts. "I'm not even that far along."

Catherine holds out her arms, "Come here, sweetie."

Kono takes the comfort, wrapping her arms around Catherine and resting her chin on Catherine's shoulder. "Thanks, Cath."

"Of course." Catherine brushes Kono's hair back, rearranging it a little where it seems out of place. "And I will be the first one to admit that these McGarrett babies sure do pack a wallop."

Kono laughs, leaning back against the counter and pressing her hand against her forehead. "I just…" She sighs, looking down. "I was hoping I would have a little more time before this happened, you know?"

Catherine has been trying to get her obligation to the program done with as quickly as possible, but she understands the urge to procrastinate. Leaning next to Kono, Catherine admits, "I was eligible to take my years and my bonus after my first tour in Afghanistan. I was twenty-five, and not at all ready."

"What changed your mind?" Kono asks with wide eyes.

Catherine shrugs, but then smiles over at Kono. "I was up again when Steve was pulled from the field. And I knew him. He and I were friends. Fuck buddies, I guess you could say." 

Kono laughs. "Yeah, I kinda got that impression."

"I guess I thought it would be easier, if I knew the guy. If he wasn't just some random soldier they thought I'd make good babies with." Catherine picks up a stray scrap of paper from the counter beside her and tears it in half.

"You guess?" Kono asks, leveraging herself up onto the counter. Catherine wishes she was light enough to still do the same. "You mean it's not?"

With a shrug, Catherine replies, "Maybe it's _easier_ , but it's not easy." There have been a lot of thoughts rattling around in Catherine's brain since she moved to Hawaii. The most prominent one is the one she shares with Kono, "I never thought far enough ahead. I'm going to have to be someone's _mother_. That's not a three year commitment, or even a five-year one. It's for life."

Kono holds her hand over her own belly, frowning down at it. "I always thought I'd have kids one day. I just…" She smiles sadly at Catherine. "I thought I'd marry Prince Charming, and our daughter would be a princess." Laughing, she wipes away a tear from the corner of her eye. "This will be good too, right?"

"Of course," Catherine assures Kono, taking Kono's hand in hers and squeezing it. "And, you have to admit that if anyone _looks_ like Prince Charming, it's Steve."

Laughing loudly, Kono covers her mouth to muffle the noise. "Oh, my god! Do you think we'd be able to dress him up as Prince Charming for Halloween?"

Catherine grins and pats her belly. "If all goes to plan, this guy will have been born a few weeks before Halloween. I'm sure I'll be able to get Steve to do whatever I want."

Kono giggles, bumping into Catherine. 

Catherine thinks it feels good to have a friend here.

Looking over at Kono, Catherine can't help but ask, "Speaking of Steve, what's going on with him and Danny?"

"I, uh," Kono says, her brows tilting up in surprise. "I don't know, exactly. Apparently Steve did _something_ unforgivable, though neither of them will tell me what it was."

Catherine frowns, not quite sure if it's her business to see to Steve's happiness. He's his own person. Of course, he's also the father of Catherine's child. She needs him to be whole and functioning, because there's no way in hell she's doing this parenting thing by herself, ASEP help or not. "He's down a member at Five-0," she nods to Kono. "Does he know about this, or does Steve think you're going to join him and Chin in the field?"

"No one knows yet," Kono admits, giving Catherine a sheepish smile. "I just wanted to get through graduation, you know?"

"I'm surprised ASEP hasn't demanded a test yet," Catherine tells her. "I mean, you and Steve had been trying for six months. That's the point where they start to get worried."

"We haven't, though," Kono says, her cheeks a little darker. "We told the reps we were taking some time to get acquainted, so I could get through school." She frowns down at her belly. "We only had sex once. Three weeks ago."

Catherine can't help but laugh, earning a frown from Kono. "Sorry," she says quickly, patting Kono's shoulder in apology. "Boy's got some strong swimmers, is all."

Kono laughs, and Catherine notices she's looking a lot less pale than she had a few minutes ago.

"Ready to go back to your party, Officer?" Catherine asks, standing away from the counter and holding out her hand.

"Sure thing," Kono replies, taking Catherine's hand. As the leave the bathroom, Kono tells Catherine, "I'm really glad you could make it."

"I wouldn't miss this for the world," Catherine replies, surprising herself with how deeply she means it.

~*~

Danny's sitting at his desk, going through financials for some guy that his Captain thinks is involved with an Italian family supposedly moving into town since Five-0 took down Frank Salvo's attempted operation. Danny thinks Captain Kiele is out of her mind, but he's not about to say that. She didn't have to give Danny a job after he left Five-0, but she did, and after only a little prodding from Chin's cousin.

He sees a figure in the door to his and Meka's office, and when he looks over, Danny's surprised to see Catherine Rollins. "Catherine!" Danny cries, standing up to greet her. His eyes are automatically drawn to her swollen belly. She's just starting to reach the stage where it's obvious she's pregnant, and not just a little heavier than she used to be. "What are you doing here?"

"Can I sit?" she asks, pointing to the chair next to Danny's desk.

"Yeah, of course," he says, straightening the chair for her and stepping back. He lets her sit first, like his mother taught him, and then sits down as well. He gives her an expectant look, not quite sure how else to ask what she's up to.

"Do you know," she starts, settling back in the chair, "how often Steve calls me at work, asking for 'favors'? I'm not getting any of my work done anymore."

Frowning, Danny picks up his pen, tapping it against the folder on his desk a few times. "And the reason you're telling me this, instead of bringing it up with him?"

"He needs you back at Five-0," Catherine insists, staring Danny down that way only military-trained people seem to be able to do.

Looking away, Danny scoffs. "It's been a month. What he needs to do is hire someone new, already."

Catherine leans forward, putting her hand over Danny's wrist. "He needs _you_ , Danny. He needs his best friend."

Danny pulls his wrist away from her, leaning back in his chair and watching Catherine. "Did he send you here?"

Chuckling, Catherine asks, "Does that seem like something Steve would do?"

Unable to disagree, Danny nods. "Yeah, okay. He has no idea you're here."

Catherine spends a long moment watching Danny before she says, "Look. Here's the way it is. My kid deserves to have a dad who's more than a sad shell of himself. Maybe no one else really sees it, but I've known Steve for a long time, and he's _miserable_."

"That's his problem," Danny insists, crossing his arms.

"Maybe so," Catherine replies. "But it's become my problem, and Kono's problem. And _I'm_ making it _your_ problem."

Danny feels the rage bubbling up under his skin. "I'm not military," Danny points out, clenching his fists and trying to breathe slowly. "You can't make Steve my problem."

"I can ask you to," Catherine says, seeming absolutely sincere. Some of Danny's anger melts away.

"You have no idea what you're asking me to do," Danny tells her, hoping she'll give up on this pointless errand of hers.

Instead of giving up, Catherine scoffs. "What? Lose some of your pride? Danny, didn't this friendship mean _anything_ to you?"

Danny can't help but laugh. "That's funny. You thinking I had nothing invested here, like it didn't rip my heart in half to walk away."

"Then why did you?" Catherine asks, scooting closer to Danny. "Please, Danny. Help me understand what happened."

"What happened?" Danny repeats, his chest and throat tight. "I fucking fell in love with him, that's what happened."

Danny watches the surprise spread across Catherine's face, her eyebrows jumping up and her eyes going wide. She flounders, mouth opening and closing a few times, before saying, "Oh, Danny."

"Yeah," he says shortly, looking away from her and down at his desk. It's out there, now. His big secret. His big fucking deal.

"Hey," Catherine says, drawing Danny's attention back. "You're not the only one."

Danny catches on pretty quickly. "You, too?"

"Yeah," she admits, looking down at where she has her hands clasped over her belly.

"I don't understand it," Danny says, giving Catherine a little bit of a smile. "He's not even that great, right?"

"Right," Catherine says with a laugh. "He gets horrible morning breath."

" _Never_ listens to reason," Danny adds, more than a little aware of the fondness in his voice. He just has to remind himself why he's not with Steve anymore. "Doesn't consider other people's feelings."

"But, if you ask him to be somewhere…" Catherine sighs.

"He's there, yeah," Danny finishes for her. He looks at Catherine for a moment. "How do you deal with it?"

"What?" she asks, furrowing her brow. "Loving him?"

" _Sharing_ him," Danny clarifies, watching carefully as Catherine's face falls.

"I don't know." Catherine shifts in her chair. "I guess I grew up with the expectation that I would have to share. That, and I like Kono. It's not so bad knowing she's the only one I'm sharing with."

"Shit," Danny says, suddenly so overcome with guilt that he has to stand up out of his chair and pace toward the window. 

"What?"

Danny looks at Catherine, not quite sure how to confess to her what he's done. Apparently he doesn't have to, because she reads it from his face.

"Oh. You and Steve…"

Wincing, Danny says, "Yeah. It was just the once, but…" Danny shakes his head. He has no excuses. "I'm sorry, Catherine."

She shakes her head. "He never made any promises to me, Danny. It's no one's fault."

"But he's not supposed to…" Confused, Danny leans forward against his desk to put himself more on her level. "ASEP has rules. I helped him break those rules."

"Some of the rules make sense," Catherine replies. "Some of them don't. Danny…" she pauses, standing up and rounding the desk to stand eye-to-eye with him. "If it's asking too much of you, I understand, but I think both of you would be happier if you made up."

"And then what?" Danny asks. "It's not healthy to be friends with someone you want, but can't have."

"And if you could have him?" Catherine asks, raising an eyebrow. 

"I'd still have to share him," Danny points out. "Catherine, if you're under the impression that I haven't thought through this over, and over again, you're mistaken."

"Just…" Catherine huffs. "Just think about whether sharing would actually be that bad. Think about being part of the family."

Danny looks down at Catherine's belly again, dumbstruck. "What— What do you mean, part of the family?"

"I had a Dad and four moms growing up," Catherine says. "Why couldn't my baby have two dads and two moms? And I mean, you already know how to be a dad. You'd be doing me a favor."

"By sleeping with your boyfriend, I'd be doing _you_ a favor?" Danny asks skeptically.

"He's not my boyfriend," Catherine insists with a smile. "And if it turns the mope at my house back into a functional human being, I'm willing to give it a shot."

Danny laughs shortly, almost unwilling to believe Catherine's attitude. Of course, she was raised in an ASEP family; she's bound to have some wild attitudes. Movement at the doorway draws Danny's attention to Meka, who holds up a file with an expectant expression. 

Turning to Catherine, Danny ushers her toward the door, saying, "I'll think about it, okay? Just maybe work on some alternate strategies just in case." Danny leans closer to Catherine and admits, "I did say some pretty harsh things the last time he and I fought. Don't get your hopes up."

"Got it," Catherine replies, giving Meka a polite nod hello. "Thanks, Danny."

"Don't thank me yet," Danny insists, giving Catherine a final wave as she heads toward the elevator and out of Danny's division. Turning to Meka, Danny says, "Sorry. It's been a bit of an afternoon."

Waving the file again, Meka grins. "Wanna make it even more interesting?"

"God, yes," Danny replies. "Let me tell you, I am in the mood to bust heads. Who are we after?"

~*~

Steve is at the tech table, standing between Kono and Chin, when Kono hits him on the arm. He thinks she might want him to go get her another ginger ale, but when Steve meets her eyes, Kono nods toward the door. 

Danny is standing there, hovering like he's not quite sure he's allowed to be here.

"Danny!" Steve cries, circling around the table and heading toward Danny. Ever since Steve got the go-ahead from Whitesides, he's been trying to think of a way to approach Danny without pissing him off. And now, Danny's come to him!

As Steve gets closer, he realizes that Danny's eyes are red, like he's been crying. "Danny, what's wrong? Is it Grace?"

"Grace is fine," Danny says, and it's weird the way he keeps his hands to himself, even when Steve gets within arm's reach. "But I think your dad is right about corruption inside HPD." He hands a folder to Steve—an ME's report. "I think it got my partner killed."

"Meka?" Chin asks from behind Steve, joining them. _He_ gets a friendly arm-squeeze from Danny, Steve notices. "Meka's dead?"

"The body they found in the Imu on Saturday night," Danny says with a tense nod. "Max was just able to identify his body today."

"Why do you think HPD corruption was involved?" Kono asks, looking at the file over Steve's other shoulder. "Yikes."

"Over at Organized Crime, Meka and I had been following up on this Italian outfit, which led us to this drug cartel out of Mexico. We trapped and traced one of the leader's phones, and he made a couple of calls to a burner located _inside_ the HPD precinct. Just like when Kono went undercover for us on that first case." Danny shakes his head. "I told Meka to leave it alone over the weekend. I had Grace, and I didn't want him following down any leads without backup."

"He didn't listen," Steve guesses, getting a morose nod from Danny. Shutting the folder and handing it to Kono, Steve says, "We'll take the case. The sooner we find this cop on the take, the sooner we can figure out whether the Mexicans are the only organization they're feeding information to."

"And whether or not this mole helped Victor Hesse find your father's compound," Chin adds. "We've always thought the location was too well guarded to be anything other than an inside job." He nods at Danny, who nods back.

"This mole…" Danny says with a determined huff, meeting Steve's eyes. "This mole got a good cop killed. I want him to burn the same way my friend did."

Steve's heart aches for Danny, and he wants to reach out, to pull Danny into a hug, but he's still not sure whether or not he's allowed. "We'll find them," Steve assures Danny. "We won't let them get away with it."

Danny nods, apparently satisfied for the time being. As they follow Kono and Chin back toward the computer, Danny says in a quiet voice, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure," Steve says, leading Danny to his office and closing the door behind them. "What is it?"

Danny sits on the arm of Steve's sofa, drumming on it lightly as he clears his throat. "Catherine came to see me last week."

"Catherine?" Steve asks, leaning against his desk. " _My_ Catherine?"

"Yeah," Danny says, smiling with a little chuckle. "Apparently you've been kind of a pill to live with lately."

Steve can't help but be confused. "She went to _you_ to complain about me?"

Smile growing a little wider, Danny nods. "Yeah. We kinda commiserated a little bit. She practically _begged_ me to finally accept your apology."

"Is that what this is?" Steve asks, motioning back and forth between himself and Danny. "Burying the hatchet, so to speak?"

"Mostly I needed help from people I knew I could trust," Danny says, motioning to Chin and Kono through the glass wall. "But yeah, I guess so."

"And after this case?" Steve asks, watching Danny carefully. "What happens then?"

Danny throws his hands up. "I don't know, okay? I don't know."

Steve half-expected Danny to say they'd go their separate ways again, so "I don't know" sounds a lot like "I might stay." And that's music to Steve's ears. He smiles at Danny and says, "Okay. Let's go find who killed your friend."

~*~

As the funeral clears out, Steve watches Danny do his best to help Meka's widow, Amy. At Steve's elbow, Catherine asks, "You ready to go home?"

"Why don't you and Kono go?" Steve suggests. "I want to talk to Danny."

"Oh, you want to _talk_ to him," Catherine says with a smirk. "Uh-huh."

Steve narrows his eyes at Catherine. "Yeah, talk. What are you—" He shifts to look at her from a different angle. "What do you know?"

She shrugs. "I think it's cute."

From the doorway, Kono calls, "Catherine!"

Steve leans forward and kisses Catherine's cheek, his hand automatically drawn to her ever-growing belly. "We'll talk about this later," he tells her as he lets her go, watching the way her body sways back and forth on wider hips.

"You're not going with them?" Danny asks, and looking down, Steve sees the curious tilt of his brow and the slight smile. Maybe Danny really is done being mad at him.

"No, uh," Steve says, clearing his throat. "I was thinking you shouldn't be alone tonight."

Danny widens his eyes, the edge of his lips turning up in a smirk. "Oh, is that what you were thinking?"

"I know what it's like, losing someone suddenly," Steve explains, crossing his arms and breathing very carefully through the memory of Freddie bleeding out in the North Korean village. Shaking away the thought, Steve adds, "So you're either going to my place, or Chin's. Your choice."

"And if I choose Chin's?" Danny asks, clearly in challenge.

Steve can't help but smile. "That's your decision. If it helps you make up your mind, I have beer."

Tilting his head and scratching behind his ear, Danny looks at Steve for a long moment. Finally, he says, "Yeah, okay. I could use a beer."

The ride back to Steve's place in the Camaro is quiet, and Steve feels this overwhelming sense of expectation. He tells himself not to expect too much, but he can't help being excited Danny is finally talking to him again. Or, will be once they get home. Steve hopes.

Steve watches Danny drive, and it seems like both forever and no time at all before they're pulling up to the compound gate.

SPC Laskin comes to the driver's side window of the Camaro. "Identification, please." He looks past Danny and waves to Steve, "Evening, Commander."

Grumbling as he pulls his wallet from his pocket, Danny says, "You know, time was, your guards used to wave me right on through the gate."

"That's when you were here more often," Steve replies, returning Laskin's wave. "Plus, they've really upped security since the break in."

"How much does securing this place _cost_?" Danny asks, taking his ID back and signing the log where Laskin indicates. "You'd think you were keeping stacks of gold here, rather than a family."

"One in the same to the US Military, sir," SPC Laskin says. "Have a nice evening."

Steve leads Danny to his house, noticing that Catherine's place is dark, but Kono still has her lights on. Maybe they're both at Kono's place. Steve has definitely noticed the two of them hanging out together more and more often. 

Grabbing a couple beers from the fridge, Steve pops them open and hands one to Danny. "Wanna sit out on the upper lanai?"

Danny looks at the stairs uneasily, and Steve almost takes back his offer, but then Danny nods. "Yeah, okay."

The back of Steve's neck prickles as he leads Danny upstairs, and it takes a great force of will not to hesitate at the door to his bedroom. He's been sleeping alone a lot, as of late, with Catherine as an occasional bedmate when he gets home early enough that she hasn't fallen asleep yet.

The thought of Danny in his bed makes Steve ache with want.

He flips on the switch for the lanai lights and opens the door, taking the far chair and settling down. There's a little bit of a view from up here, but as a Navy man for his entire adult life, Steve's still getting used to living so far from the water again.

Danny sets his beer down on the table between them and wriggles out of his dress uniform jacket. He hangs it over the back of his chair and pulls his undershirt out of his pants before reclaiming his beer and sitting down. Steve has to admit, he's a little disappointed Danny stopped stripping where he did. 

The night air is warm, so Steve takes off his jacket as well, loosening his tie and the top few buttons of his shirt. Danny's a solid presence at Steve's right, and Steve isn't quite sure how to break the silence between them.

Luckily, Danny does it for him. "So," Danny says, pausing for a sharp sigh. "Here's the thing." 

Steve nods, giving Danny a moment to gather his thoughts and start speaking again.

"I don't want to be anyone's secret," Danny says, looking up from his beer to meet Steve's eyes. "Like, maybe I could be okay with sharing you every once in awhile, but I am far too old to be sneaking around like a teenager so I can get laid."

Steve can't help but smile broadly, which makes Danny's face scrunch up.

"What are you smiling about?" Danny demands.

Still grinning, Steve says, "I told my ASEP coordinator about you."

Danny frowns, looking out over the neighborhood for a moment, and then back at Steve. "What do you mean, you told them about me?"

"I mean," Steve says, "I told her I wanted you to be my primary partner. That if they want me to keep working, _you_ are what I needed."

" _I_ am what you needed?" Danny stares at Steve. "What did she say? Your ASEP person?"

"As long as you clear medical, it's pretty much willful ignorance on their part. They don't have a problem with it." Steve sets down his beer and reaches out, holding his hand where Danny can take it if he likes. "I can't promise you monogamy, Danny, but I can promise that I love you, and I want to be with you. I'll never keep that a secret."

"So you'll tell Kono?" Danny asks. "Before we start anything, you'll tell her?"

Steve nods. "And Catherine, too."

Danny chuckles. "Catherine already knows, babe."

"Ah." Suddenly Steve's earlier exchange with Catherine makes more sense. Taking a long look at Danny, who's picking at the label on his beer, Steve tries not to get his hopes up too far. Still, he can't help but ask, "So what are you thinking?"

"What am I thinking?" Danny repeats, his voice soft and speculative. "I'm thinking I never would have guessed you'd convince the government to let you break the rules, for me."

"You did tell me to be less selfish," Steve points out, grinning when Danny gives him a small smile before looking away again.

"When have you ever listened to me before?" Danny asks, but there's this softness to his sarcasm that makes Steve keep smiling.

Danny returns the smile, shaking his head. He looks out over the city for another moment before rubbing his hand over his face. "I'm fucking exhausted. Please, don't ask me to think this through rationally when my brain isn't working."

"Okay," Steve agrees, standing up and offering Danny a hand. "Come on. You take the bed. I'll sack out on the couch downstairs."

Accepting the help to his feet, Danny stands, but then he doesn't let go of Steve's hand. When Steve looks back at Danny, Danny meets his eyes for a long moment. Eventually, his voice hoarse, Danny says, "Stay?"

Steve has to bite down on the urge to whoop out loud in celebration. "You want me to stay? Up here with you?"

"Just to sleep," Danny insists, pointing his free finger at Steve as he makes the point. "I just…" Danny looks away, but he doesn't drop Steve's hand. "I want to sleep next to someone again."

"Yeah, we can do that," Steve says, tugging Danny gently toward the bedroom. "Come on."

After getting Danny into the bedroom, Steve backtracks for their dress uniforms, not wanting to leave them at the mercy of the morning dew. When he returns, it's just in time to see Danny shucking his pants and climbing into Steve's bed in his underwear.

Steve does the same, and when he lays down in bed, he's surprised when Danny curls over toward him, resting his head on Steve's shoulder. Steve pulls Danny a little closer and whispers, "Hey, I got you, okay? I got you."

"Yeah," Danny replies, his fingers tightening around Steve's hand. "Yeah."

~*~

Her stomach growling miserably, Kono opens her pantry, looking for something that won't make her want to throw up. She almost reaches for the bag of potato chips, but at the last second, the bile rising in her throat makes her pull back. Pouting, she closes the pantry and heads for Steve's place. He's always got something good stashed away.

As she walks in bare feet the dozen yards over to Steve's place, she almost steps on a slug. "Ew," she mutters, dancing around it and retreating into the other house. Steve's already up and in the kitchen, ducked down into the fridge. "Hey," Kono says, heading for Steve's snack cupboard. "Do you still have some of those protein bars?"

"Uh," says a voice from the fridge, and it's not Steve's.

Kono turns around to see Danny standing at the fridge, in just his boxers, awkwardly closing the refrigerator door. 

"Danny!" Kono cries, crossing an arm over her chest for a little bit of decency. She's wearing a tank top, but it's an old thread-bare one that's almost see-through. "I didn't know you were here!"

"I, uh," Danny says, looking through the kitchen door, like he's looking for someone. Steve, most likely, as this is his house. "I stayed over. Is that okay?" He winces and scratches at the back of his neck.

Danny's words sink in and Kono grins, "Does this mean that you and Steve made up? Am I gonna get to work with you at Five-0?"

" _That's_ your question?" Danny asks. "I'm in my underwear in your boyf— your—" He huffs in frustration. "In _Steve's_ house, and you're concerned over where I'm going to work?"

"Yeah," Kono replies, before Danny's meaning hits her. "Wait, did you sleep over at Steve's house, or did you _sleep with Steve_?" Kono feels sort of like she should be having an emotional reaction aside from surprise, but it's not happening. 

"Sort of," Danny replies, even though Kono asked him an either/or question. "I _knew_ you were going to have a problem with this. I told Steve this wouldn't work. You know what? I'll just go get dressed, get out of everybody's hair—"

Kono steps close enough to take Danny by the shoulders and shake him a little bit. "Hey. Danny! Chill out, brah!" She takes a deep breath and lets it out, helping to calm herself and giving herself a moment to think. "Look. I'm… _surprised_ ," Kono tells Danny. "And a little confused." Kono thinks about the night she spent with Steve and wonders if his sadness was less to do with whatever was going on at the time, and more to do with the fact that Kono is a woman.

From everything Kono has heard about Don't Ask Don't Tell and the ASEP program is that while they actively tried to breed out same-sex behaviors, they didn't have much success. Still, she's heard of patriarchs getting the boot if it came to light they weren't straight. Female partners, too. "It's—" she tries to say to Danny, frowning at her lack of words. "I'm just— What happens when ASEP finds out?"

Danny rolls his eyes, leaning against the counter. "Apparently, the asshole went and _told_ his program officer. He could've been kicked out of the service, and yet he went and did it anyway."

"And?" Kono asks, gripping the edge of the counter. If her whole world is going to crash down around her ears, she wants to be ready for it. 

"And she's fine with it," Danny assures Kono. "I mean, who knows if it's just this one officer covering her own ass, but nobody's out on the street." 

"Well, that's a relief," Kono says, watching Danny's face. He watches her warily, like the kid she caught trying to shoplift from a corner store last week. Kono recognizes that, just like if she had arrested that kid, she could ruin Danny's hopes for whatever this is between him and Steve. Or, she could show mercy. She can't exactly march Danny two blocks home to his parents and explain what dangerous territory he's wading into, like she had for the kid. 

Thinking about the way Steve used to behave around Danny when they still worked together, and how miserable he's been for the last few weeks, Kono can't help but feel happy for him. For them. Even if it does mean sharing Steve with another person. 

Truly, Kono feels no claim over Steve, except as the father of her baby. Even then, the baby doesn't feel real yet, or even like it belongs to her in the first place. ASEP wants the baby. Kono wanted to help her family. It felt like an even trade at the time.

Kono looks at Danny, still standing there shirtless, in his underwear, and she thinks she should probably take mercy on him and let him go get dressed. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with a little friendly torture. "So," she asks with a smile, "ASEP's fine with it, how do you feel about this thing with Steve? Think you can share him?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Danny replies with a sigh. "I don't—" He makes a face. "My ma says I'm not good at sharing. Never have been."

Stepping closer to Danny, Kono puts her hands on his shoulders—and, _oh_ it's been awhile since she touched anyone skin-on-skin. "Maybe you need to think of this as good practice," she says, watching the way he rolls his eyes and gives her a tiny smirk. "A way to better yourself."

"How 'bout you, Kalakaua?" Danny asks, putting his hands on her hips, almost like they're about to start middle-school-caliber slow dancing right there in the kitchen. "You willing to share when the government isn't telling you you've got to?"

Kono smiles. "Well, who am I to stand in the way of true love?" 

Danny scoffs and rolls his eyes, but he's grinning, too. "C'mere," he says, pulling Kono into a hug. 

Kono wraps her arms around Danny's shoulders and squeezes him. With his shirt off, it's easier to smell his skin, and Kono decides she _really_ likes the way Danny smells. 

"Um," says a voice from the doorway—Steve's, Kono realizes as she lets go of Danny. Her cheeks feel warm as she realizes Steve has caught her hugging his—well, _whatever_ —while they're both in their underwear. He shifts on his feet, looking a little uncomfortable, but at least he's wearing board shorts and a shirt. He meets Danny's eyes and says, "I thought maybe you'd left."

"I can go…" Danny says, pointing past Steve toward the door. There's a tone in Danny's voice that makes Kono think he has no intention of doing any such thing. 

Steve's eyes go wide and he holds up his hands. "No, no! You should stay! As long as—" Steve looks over at Kono almost like a little boy who's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. 

Kono crosses the room toward Steve and pulls him into a hug, saying, "I'm happy for you guys." As she pulls back, she adds, "I'm not saying this is going to be easy, because while _I'm_ not allowed other romantic options, _you_ apparently are. But…" She smiles. "We'll make it work."

"Maybe," Danny insists, joining them, one hand on Kono's arm, the other on the small of Steve's back. "We still have to talk to Catherine."

"You still have to be cleared by the doctor, too," Steve tells Danny.

“Cleared by the doctor?” Kono asks, a chuckle in her voice. “What? Does the army want to make sure Danny doesn’t have a heart attack on their property and sue them?”

“How would he have a heart attack?” Steve asks, and Danny frowns.

Kono gets herself around Steve and closer to the door before she replies. “From all the sex you guys are gonna have, obviously!” Laughing at the look Steve and Danny share, Kono adds, “Don’t worry, Danny. He’s not _that_ good.”

Outraged noises follow Kono out the door as she makes her escape. Still hungry, she heads toward Catherine’s place to look for food. The chances of Kono being thwarted by discovering Catherine’s secret lover over at her place are much lower than at Steve’s, apparently.

~*~

Danny stands in Steve's kitchen after Kono leaves, watching Steve's face. He's got this goofy, unsure expression that makes Danny's chest feel tight. Danny knows Steve is waiting for an answer, and Danny would like nothing more than to give Steve those answers. First, he has some questions of his own.

"You," he says, pointing to Steve. "Make coffee, maybe some cereal or something, because I'm starving. I'm going to get dressed. Then, we're going to drink our coffee and have a talk."

"Am I going to like this talk?" Steve asks, just as Danny gets to the door of the kitchen. 

Taking a moment to think before he responds, Danny has no answer than to shrug and say, "I honestly don't know."

A slow smile spreads across Steve's face, and Danny notices the way Steve's stubble is darker than how Danny usually sees it.

"What are you smiling about?" Danny rests one arm on the doorjamb and throws the other wide in emphasis.

"If you were sure you were going to leave, you'd've answered 'no'. That I wouldn't like this talk," Steve explains, his grin growing wider.

Flustered by the way that grin makes him feel, Danny huffs. "I hate you," he says, turning away from Steve and heading toward the stairs.

"That's not true," Steve calls after him. "You love me!"

God help him, Danny _does_ love Steve, for all the good it's doing him. 

Danny catches sight of his dress uniform, folded neatly on Steve's dresser, and scowls. There's no way he's wearing that uncomfortable monstrosity for this discussion. Even his undershirt from yesterday feels unappealing when he picks it up.

So Danny raids Steve's dresser drawers. He quickly finds a t-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts that feel much more Danny's speed this morning. They smell like Steve's fabric softener, and Danny frowns down at his cock when it twitches at the scent. "Oh, shut up you. You're the reason we're in this mess."

Deciding not to spend too much time lingering in Steve's bedroom, next to Steve's bed, Danny pulls the clothes on quickly and heads back downstairs.

When Danny gets back to the kitchen, Steve has a kettle boiling on the stove and two empty bowls set out on the kitchen island. 

"What is this?" Danny asks, pointing to the kettle. "I asked for coffee. If you try to serve me tea, I swear to god—"

"Relax, Danny," Steve says with a laugh, pulling down from a cupboard a bag of coffee beans and some sort of pitcher contraption. "I've got you covered."

The beans go into a grinder on the counter, and then into the pitcher. When the kettle whistles, Steve pours the hot water into the pitcher as well, and Danny realizes it's one of those whatchamacallits. French presses.

"Oatmeal okay for breakfast?" Steve asks, opening another cupboard and pulling down a canister of the stuff. 

"Yeah, fine," Danny says, his stomach rumbling. "It's not my first choice. I mean, I'm more of an eggs and bacon kind of a guy. The occasional pancake. You know, boysenberry syrup."

"Seriously?" Steve asks. "Boysenberry?"

"Yeah," Danny replies. "Why? You're not a maple syrup purist, are you?"

Steve snorts and starts pouring oatmeal into each of the bowls. "Remind me to take you to Wailana Coffee House sometime. They have this amazing coconut syrup—"

"Never," Danny says, cutting Steve off. "Never-ever are you getting me to eat _anything_ coconut flavored. I don't know who invented it, but it's got this, ugh, this awful aftertaste."

Laughing and shaking his head, Steve pours hot water into the oatmeal and then presses the grounds out of the coffee. "I'm pretty sure nature invented the flavor, Danny."

"Yeah, well," Danny says, grabbing two mugs from the shelf behind him and setting them where Steve can pour the coffee. "Nature also invented cyanide and sharks, so…"

Still laughing, Steve grins at Danny, and Danny's heart feels full to bursting again. 

Soon, they're sitting at the dining table in the other room—milk and sugar in both Danny's coffee and his oatmeal, just butter of all things in Steve's coffee—and Danny has to face the fact that this discussion needs to happen.

Taking a long sip of coffee, and then a deep breath, Danny says, "Okay. Here's the thing. I was married for eight years, and it didn't end so good."

"I get that impression, yeah," Steve says, attention half on stirring his oatmeal, and half on Danny.

"And things, they weren't good for awhile. We saw a counselor, but eventually I had to accept the fact that she was cheating on me, and I knew about it."

Steve's smile has faded and he nods grimly at Danny. "For how long?"

"Six months, maybe," Danny replies, taking another sip of his coffee. "I finally confronted her with the fact that I knew. Few days later, I get served with divorce papers."

With a nod, Steve asks, "So what are you saying about us? You and me?"

Danny takes a deep breath and collects his thoughts. "For me, the worst part was Rachel lying. I don't—" Danny looks down at his hands around his mug. "I can't have you lie to me. Not about the big stuff. Not about who's bed you're in." Steve opens his mouth, but Danny waves him silent for a moment. "I don't need _details_ , I don't need daily updates, or status reports or any of that. I just need to know that if I ask you, you won't hesitate to tell me the truth."

Reaching across the table, Steve puts his hand over Danny's. "That's something I can _absolutely_ do. I promise, Danny." He meets Danny's gaze with these big, sincere eyes. 

Rachel had looked sincere once, too.

Clearing his throat, Danny sets down his cup and takes his hand back from Steve, using it to grasp his spoon and stir his oatmeal. He takes a careful bite, chews, and swallows before speaking again. "The other thing I learned from marriage was that having a kid changes the relationship, and you can't always predict how."

"You think when Catherine has the baby, I won't want you anymore?" Steve asks carefully. "Danny, that's—"

"Don't tell me I'm being stupid," Danny insists. "For the love of God, Steven, don't. You've never been a father before. You can't have any idea how it's going to change you."

There's a deep furrow between Steve's brows as Danny takes another bite of his breakfast. His stomach is warring between starvation and nerves, so the bite takes more than the usual effort to get down his throat. Danny washes it down with a sip of coffee. 

"How did it change you?" Steve asks. Danny finally gets the impression that Steve is actually participating in the conversation, not just telling Danny what he wants to hear. "Becoming a father?"

"I have _never_ loved anyone more than I love my daughter," Danny replies, his words feeling woefully inadequate. "Not even Rachel. It was this immediate, fierce sort of love, Steve. I would do anything for that little girl. I think maybe Rachel resented me for that."

"And if I react to my kids that same way?" Steve asks. "Are you going to resent me?"

Danny thinks that over for a moment. He already resents the fact that Steve can't be his, and his alone. But a thought crosses Danny's mind. "Something Catherine said has stuck with me."

"What's that?" Steve has all of his attention on Danny, his breakfast and coffee seemingly forgotten. 

"She said, growing up, that she felt like she had four moms. Was it the same here? Like you were all part of one, big family?"

Steve's face softens before he drawls, "Yeah. I mean, I don't remember much about Doris, but between my father, and Gayle, and Riko, and all us kids, we did feel like a family."

Nodding, Danny says, "And I don't mean right away, but _eventually_ , how do you see me fitting into that picture? As part of that family? Separate from it?"

Steve's mouth parts and his brow furrows. "I—"

Danny gives Steve a few more seconds to answer before he adds, "Because I have a daughter, Steve. I can't afford to fuck around in a relationship with an expiration date. Grace, she gets attached. And then what happens when you decide there's no room for me here, after all? How am I supposed to break that to her? How am I supposed to take a family like that away from her?"

Steve's face softens again, and he gets this weird, open look on his face.

"What? What is that look?" Danny demands. "You know, you have to use your words and _tell_ me what you're thinking. I can't just read your—"

"How are you such a great dad, and so negative all at the same time?" Steve asks, and he's smiling in this infectious way that makes Danny feel disarmed.

"Answer the question, Steve," Danny insists, his resolve wavering as Steve reaches forward and clasps Danny's hand. "How do I fit?"

"I honestly don't know," Steve says, gripping Danny's hand tighter when he tries to pull it away. "I've never let myself feel…" He huffs, looking away from Danny. "Like— like _this_ … about anyone before."

Okay. Obviously Steve is clueless here. He's going to need some help. Using small words and a careful tone, Danny asks, "Do you want me _here_?"

Steve blinks and insists, "Yes. Obviously."

"Do you want me around your kids?" Danny asks next. This has been Danny's big stumbling block when it comes to dating anyone new. If he can't really see them interacting well with Grace, what's the point? Of course, Steve was just a friend when Danny introduced him to Grace, so the stakes had been lower than with the one or two women Danny had considered asking out since the divorce. 

"Why wouldn't I want you around my kids?" Steve asks, squeezing Danny's hand again. "You're fantastic with Grace."

Danny tries not to smile at the compliment, but it doesn't work. Jesus, he's definitely in love with Steve. Still, Danny needs to know where this is headed. "Do you want me to be here when the baby is sick? When you and Catherine have been sleep deprived for weeks, and nothing makes the baby stop crying? Or would you rather I not get in the way?"

"What kind of question is that?" Steve asks, looking taken aback and maybe a little offended. "Of course I want you here. Everything, all of this, feels so much easier when I have you around. Plus, you're the only one of us that knows more than the slightest thing about what to do around kids. I'd be lost without you."

Danny lets out a relieved laugh. Who knows if Steve's words are real, or if he's just saying what Danny wants to hear, but he's certainly saying them. At this point, Danny knows there's no other choice but to take it on faith that Steve's answering truthfully. And besides, Danny reads people for a living. Only the most skilled of liars can pull the wool over Danny's eyes, and Steve is not so skilled. He likes to think he is, likes to think his time in Naval Intelligence and in the SEALs has made his face unreadable, but Danny has seen Steve try to save Kamekona's feelings over new flavors of shave ice. A good liar, he is not.

He's just an imbecile when it comes to feelings.

And God, if that doesn't make Danny fall for Steve that much more.

Putting his free hand over where Steve has his other grasped, Danny smiles at Steve. "I have no doubt you would be lost. Babies are not easy."

Laughing, Steve shrugs. "I mean, ASEP has experts who will come help, but why not learn from the best?"

It's such a bad line, and Danny realizes it's a bad line, but it still makes his heart skip a beat. He's still not sure if this feeling is worth all the baggage that comes along with getting into a relationship with Steve, but hell, Danny's got baggage too. Probably more than his fair share of it.

Danny takes a few more bites of his oatmeal, watching as Steve does the same. Danny should find it disgusting the way Steve wolfs down his food, grinning as he chews, but Danny doesn't. 

"Alright, babe," Danny says, taking a long sip of his coffee and keeping the mug in his hand as he sits back in his chair. "Paint me a picture here. If we do this, what do you expect our time together will look like?"

"What do you mean?" Steve asks, scraping the bottom of his bowl with his spoon.

"Day-to-day," Danny elaborates. "How often is it just the two of us? Do you hang out with Catherine and Kono? Do you want me to be around for that? If I spend the night too often, are people going to notice? Is that going to be a problem?"

Steve stares at Danny for a moment, before he says, "I think there might be something seriously wrong with you, Danny. Does your brain always work like this, or—"

The smartass tone in Steve's voice makes Danny get out of his chair and get far enough around the table that he can kiss Steve. After a long, oatmeal-flavored kiss, Danny leaves his forehead pressed against Steve's. "These are legitimate concerns I have, just so you're well aware."

"We'll figure it out," Steve assures Danny, smiling as he reaches forward to give Danny another kiss. 

Struck with the sudden thought, Danny asks, "So, what's with the doctor visit, anyway?"

"Certain...diseases," Steve says carefully as Danny rests half his butt on the table, "have detrimental effects on fertility and pregnancy, and could be passed to the baby."

"Ah, the whole 'when you've slept with a person, you're also sleeping with everyone they've ever been with issue'," Danny says with a nod. "If it makes you feel any better, the list of people I've been with is depressingly small."

Steve runs his hands up and down Danny's calf, smiling as he looks up at Danny. "It's probably longer than my list. I've known how careful I had to be since I was a kid."

"I can see how being subjected to scaremongering could put you off casual relationships," Danny replies. Thinking through the repercussions of this testing, Danny asks, "What if the tests come back and I have something? I mean, I got tested with Rachel, but who knows if she brought something home…"

"We'll still figure it out," Steve insists again. He backs his chair away from the table and stands up, leaning forward and pressing his forehead to Danny's again. His nose brushes Danny's as he takes a deep breath, and Danny's surprised at how intimate this feels. He reaches for Steve and pulls him closer. 

Danny's just about to turn his head and kiss Steve when there's a light knock on the front door. Danny lets go of Steve, startled and heart racing, but Steve doesn't back away. Even after all of Danny's ranting, Steve still doesn't understand what's at stake here. 

Catherine comes through the door, stopping short when she sees Danny and Steve. Despite how this situation is exactly what Catherine asked him for, Danny can't help but tense up. He prepares himself for the yelling to begin, but instead, a smile spreads across Catherine's face. "You two made up!"

"Uh," Steve says with a smile for Danny and a little laugh. "Yeah. We did."

Danny gets himself out from between the table and Steve. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

After a short pause she nods and starts walking toward them. "I need scrambled eggs and a blueberry Danish," Catherine replies, passing Danny to sit at the table. "However you boys make that happen, I'm good."

Danny looks over at Steve, who shrugs like Catherine has a perfectly reasonable request. Danny supposes it is. He also figures that the happier he keeps Catherine, the more likely she is to be okay with Danny and Steve having a relationship, or whatever. "I know a bakery," Danny says, pointing toward the door.

"I've got the eggs covered," Steve says, dipping down to kiss the top of Catherine's head. Danny expects a sharp pang of jealousy at the sight, but honestly, the kiss is so platonic that Danny doesn't feel much of anything at all, except maybe relief.

As Danny gathers his wallet, keys, and shoes (the patent leather looking completely out of place with the shorts he's wearing), he wonders how long that relief could possibly last.

~*~

As Steve heats up the frying pan and heads for the fridge to grab the butter and the eggs, Catherine ambles into the room. "Hey," she says, putting her hands on top of the refrigerator door once it's all the way open. 

"Hey," Steve replies, taking the things he needs out of the fridge and letting Catherine close the door behind him. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Catherine replies, but Steve isn't convinced. 

He sets down the eggs and the butter and goes to Catherine, setting his hands on her waist. "Are you mad about Danny?"

"No," Catherine says. "I'm still a little _surprised_ about Danny. Mostly I'm just…" She sighs, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around Steve's shoulders. Her solid belly presses against Steve's, keeping more distance between them than Steve is used to. "Lonely, I guess. The office they have me working out of is so isolating, and—" She takes a shaky breath, wiping a tear away from her cheek. 

"Hey," Steve says, his earlier happiness about Danny weighed down with guilt seeing Catherine like this. "Just tell me what I can do."

"It's just, you get to see Kono at work, and now that Danny's back, you'll probably see him most of the day, too." Pouting, Catherine rubs her hands up and down Steve's shoulders. "I don't want to be left out, is all."

"I'll do my best," Steve tells her, though he's not sure his best is going to be enough for her. Not when he has Danny and Kono to think of, too. 

Still, now that Danny's not mad at Steve anymore, he's feeling a lot more up to spending time with other people, and not just being by alone—or moping, as Catherine puts it. Plus, he wants to be around to watch the way his kid is growing, even if the only visible progress at this point is the way Catherine's starting to show.

Smiling at Catherine, Steve puts his hand over her belly. "I was reading, in the book, that the baby will start to be able to hear at 18 weeks. We're almost there."

"Getting close," Catherine replies with a smile. "You read the book?"

"Of course I read the book," Steve says, kissing Catherine's temple and squeezing her shoulders with his hands. "Now how 'bout those eggs?"

Leaning against the counter, Catherine gives Steve a relieved smile. "God, yes. I'm starving!"

~*~

"Would you chill out?" Catherine says, placing her hand on Steve's knee to keep it from bouncing his foot against the waiting room floor. "Everything's going to be fine."

Steve gives Catherine a look, and then says, "Yeah, no. You're right. I mean, we made it this far. The baby's bound to be alive, and everything."

Catherine hears the "unlike last time" that Steve doesn't say. She moves her hand to his wrist and tells him, "I can feel it moving, Steve. It's definitely still alive."

Letting out a big breath, Steve nods. "Okay. Right. This is no big deal." He rubs at his face and chuckles. "Man, I'm nearly as anxious as Danny over this ultrasound!"

Before Catherine can make a joke about Danny rubbing off on him, the medical worker at the door calls out, "Catherine?"

Catherine levers herself out of her chair, and has to tug on Steve's arm to get him out of whatever stupor of anxiety he's slipped into. He shakes his head and focuses on Catherine. "Yeah. Let's do this."

"You're not going to faint, are you?" Catherine asks quietly as they're led back into a hallway, and then a dim room with a medical table, a chair, a big TV on the wall, and the ultrasound machine next to the bed. 

"No, I'm not going to _faint_ ," Steve insists, like he's insulted by the suggestion. "Are you going to faint?"

"I feel fine," Catherine replies with a smile, pulling at Steve so she can kiss him on the cheek before laying down on the inclined table the technician directs her to.

"Okay, let's take a look," the technician says, waiting for Catherine to lift her shirt before tucking a rough hospital towel into the top of Catherine's maternity jeans. The gel she squirts onto Catherine's belly is hot—much warmer than expected—and then she presses the wand to Catherine's skin.

It doesn't take long for the tech to find the baby, and a bright white circle appears in the static of the image on the TV. "There's baby's head. I'm going to take the measurements I need."

Catherine's almost surprised when Steve wraps his hand around hers, an awed expression on his face. He gives a watery sort of laugh, and when Catherine looks up at the screen, she sees the baby's profile, with a perfect little nose, mouth, and chin.

As the technician keeps measuring the baby—brain, spinal cord, kidneys, heart, arms, legs—Catherine watches with rapt attention. She's _made_ that! She's making that!

"Do you want to know baby's sex?" the technician asks, and as Catherine looks at the screen, she gives a little laugh, which makes the image jump.

"I think I can tell," Catherine says, looking over at Steve. "What does that look like to you?"

"It's a boy?" Steve asks, more like he's guessing than he knows for sure. 

"That's a boy," the technician says in agreement. "Those are definitely boy parts right there."

Steve looks dumbstruck, and Catherine can't help but laugh at him a little. "Another McGarrett man. I'm sure your dad will be happy."

"Oh, he'll be over the moon," Steve agrees, squeezing Catherine's hand and clearing his throat. "And ASEP, too."

The thought of this tiny little boy, her son, growing up into a man big enough and strong enough to go to war boggles Catherine's mind. If that's his choice, Catherine knows she'll be proud of him. She just hopes that he'll have the freedom to decide whether or not he wants this life. 

"He's healthy, right?" Steve asks as the technician finishes up, wiping the gel from Catherine's stomach. "Nothing wrong?"

"That's up to the radiologist," the technician replied. I'll give all the scans to her, and then your regular doctor will get the results. But," she smiles, and reaches under her equipment, tearing a sheet of paper. Coming back up, she hands Catherine a photo of the baby's profile. "That's for you."

Catherine smiles, tracing the lines of the baby's face with her finger, before handing it to Steve so he can get a better look. "Thank you."

Steve's still staring at the photo as the technician shows them out the door. 

~*~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the chapter I meant to post two weeks ago, but with the holidays I got distracted and forgot. Sorry! We're back to our regular every-two-weeks schedule now!


	6. May 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good news, family functions, and a newcomer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are skippable sex scenes in this chapter. The second one skips to the end of the chapter, so if you really don't want to see anything NC-17, just stop reading and go to the next chapter at that point.

“Hey, Danny,” Chin says, knocking on Danny’s office door.

Danny is sitting at his old desk at Five-0, and it’s been a little strange transferring back. Still, with Meka gone, Danny’s departure from HPD feels like a clean break. Working with both Steve and Kono has been a bit of an adjustment, since Danny has been spending most nights at Steve’s place, where he regularly spends time with both Kono and Catherine as well. 

Coming into the office, Chin holds out a white envelope. “Mail for you.”

Taking the envelope, Danny thanks Chin, and immediately feels his cheeks grow red when he sees the return address: _Dr. John Kekoa_. It’s the results from Danny’s check-up with the Army doctor, and Danny prays to god that Chin doesn’t actually _know_ the guy through Malia or something. It’s a small island, after all.

True to his nature, Chin doesn’t mention the source of the letter. Instead, he asks, “Do you have Grace this weekend?”

“Uh, yeah,” Danny says, thinking he should probably go by his apartment tonight and make sure it’s Grace-ready. The last he remembered, he threw a load of dirty clothes on the bed, and packed a new set to bring to Steve’s. For all his rule-breaking, Steve’s been adamant that he and Danny keep things platonic until the results of these tests came back. Still, Danny has spent eight of the last ten nights sleeping next to Steve. Platonically. 

Danny’s fingers itch to open the envelope, but first Chin has to scram. “Why? What’s up this weekend?”

“Malia and I are thinking about hosting a beach day. Her sister Jane is back at Pearl for the next few weeks before she’s stationed in D.C. for five years. Malia thought it would be nice.” Chin shrugs.

“Seems kind of like a family thing,” Danny says, not sure how cozy he wants to get with Steve’s family, if the results of these tests kill the chances he and Steve will get to start their relationship anytime in the next ten years. “I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

“Nah,” Chin insists, his grin wide. “You’re _ohana_ , brah. I promise. Plus, I hear John is eager to meet you.”

Narrowing his eyes at Chin, Danny asks, “What? Why?”

“Because you work with his son, and his soon-to-be son-in-law,” Chin explains, putting his hand over his own chest. “That’s all. I promise.”

Danny still doesn’t like it. He’s not sure how much Steve has told John about him, and he’s not looking forward to finding out. Still, Chin is a good friend, and Malia is Steve’s sister. Danny feels obligated to go. “Fine. Grace and I will be there.”

“Glad to hear it!” Chin smiles broadly, knocking on Danny’s door again softly as he leaves.

As soon as Chin turns his back, Danny tears open the envelope and unfolds the papers inside. There’s several of them stapled together, and as Danny runs down the list of a dozen test results, each and every one of them says, “Negative.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, Danny sits back in his chair. Looking over through the glass walls, and into Steve’s office, Danny watches Steve speaking on the phone. He wonders if Steve would be up for skipping out early and finally picking up where they left off almost three months ago.

Not that Danny exactly knows what he’s doing in that regard. Aside from a couple of random hook ups in college (all of which were very similar to his one night with Steve), Danny doesn’t feel like he’s had enough experience to learn the skills a man of his age should probably have. At least not those applicable to another guy.

Danny’s still watching Steve when Kono knocks on his open door. “Hey, we got a case.”

“Really?” Danny asks, because of course they have a case _now_. “Kono, please tell me this looks like an easy one.”

“Murder,” Kono says, pointing over her shoulder toward the displays in the center of HQ. “Rich guy. Execution style.”

“Fuck my life,” Danny replies, hauling himself forward and grabbing up the test results. He shoves them back in the envelope and locks the envelope in his desk.

As he follows her from the room, Kono nods back toward Danny’s office. “Good news?” she asks with a sly smile.

“The best,” Danny replies dryly. “C’mon, show me what you’ve got. You know how I hate it when a rich guy gets killed.”

“Too many motives,” Kono agrees, her hand over her lower stomach as she pulls up to the tech table. She’s been wearing loose, flowing tops lately, and Danny has a sneaking suspicion she’s afraid of the point where she really starts to show. When Catherine hit five months, she started working in an office building off-base, like the brass were terrified of having her too close to the live munitions. Danny can’t fault Kono for assuming it might be the same at Five-0. She’s already barred from any field work, and Danny’s not sure how Kono can stand it.

Well, not being in debt to the federal government for life probably helps. 

Chin and Steve join them at the table as Kono starts explaining the case, and Danny has to work very, very hard to keep his mind focused on the task at hand, and not on the heat he can feel from Steve’s body next to his. 

Danny scoots closer to Kono and gives her as much of his attention as he's able to muster. Eventually the case draws him in and Danny is able to do his job without more than a momentary distracted second or two here and there.

It's going to be a long, long day.

~*~

Skip the NC-17 part

Steve wakes up with a hand under his shirt and lips nibbling at the back of his neck. In his half-asleep daze, he doesn't remember whether it was Catherine in his bed last night, or Danny. The day before had been almost 24 hours of working nonstop, and Steve doesn't actually remember getting in bed. 

The lips at the nape of Steve's neck are prickly with stubble, and when Steve slips his hand over the one on his chest, he finds that hand covered with coarse hair. "Mm, Danno," Steve murmurs, still half asleep.

Danny tugs at Steve's shoulder until he rolls onto his back, using the new position to lick and suck at the base of Steve's neck. Steve feels his sleepy body start to respond, his cock slowly filling, before he's awake enough to realize they shouldn't be doing this. Pushing at the hand sliding down Steve's chest, he says, "Danny. Hey, c'mon."

"I got my results back from the doctor yesterday morning," Danny says, nipping at Steve's earlobe and tracing the top elastic of Steve's boxers with his finger. "We're in the clear, babe."

Steve looks over at Danny suddenly. "Wait, really?"

"Mm-hm." Danny hitches his leg over Steve, his cock hard against Steve's hip. "You're lucky I let you sleep as long as I did."

"Why did you let me sleep _at all_?" Steve asks with a laugh, pulling Danny on top of his body and catching Danny's lips in a kiss.

"You were falling asleep on your feet last night," Danny says between kisses. He gives Steve a playful smirk. "And I wanted you to be awake for this."

Before Steve can ask what "this" is, Danny's scooting down Steve's body, taking Steve's underwear with him as he goes. Steve helps get the boxers off over his feet, and notices Danny's already naked. "Fuck," Steve groans, reaching for Danny and pulling him close. As Steve kisses Danny, the feel of all that skin against his makes Steve shudder. He uses his hands to catalog the ways Danny feels different from Catherine. 

Mostly Steve gets distracted by the way the meat of Danny's ass feels in his hands, and the way Danny pulls at his lower lip, and the way Danny's cock is hard against Steve's. Steve starts to roll Danny underneath him, but Danny stops him, saying, "Wait, no. I want to—"

Steve wants to complain when Danny pulls out of his arms, but then Danny has Steve's hips pressed down against the bed, and his lips pressed against Steve's cock in a gentle kiss. 

"Shit," Steve says with a sigh, his hips twitching away from the overwhelming sensation of Danny's tongue tasting him. "Danny…"

"Bear with me," Danny says, letting go of one of Steve's hip and using his hand to stroke Steve's cock. "I've only ever given one of these once, and that was a long time ago."

Steve ignores the sharp pang of jealousy he feels at the thought of Danny doing this with _anyone_ before. It's a stupid, hypocritical thought, because Danny is being forced to share Steve, isn't he? Propping himself up to get a better look at Danny, Steve smiles and confesses, "Last time I got one of these was a long time ago."

"Not even with your girls?" Danny asks, smiling a little as he licks broadly up Steve's cock, the sensation making Steve shiver and kick out one of his legs.

It takes Steve a moment for his brain to catch up. "They're— _ah_ —women, Danny, not girls. And blowjobs sort of— _fuck >—defeat the purpose."_

Danny pumps his hand down Steve's cock, following it with his mouth, and oh, Steve could get used to this. Usually when he's with Catherine, he's focused on her, and when he comes, it's because he just made her come and it's easy to let go. 

Steve hasn't even touched Danny's cock yet. It's intriguing to know he could just let himself come whenever. He doesn't have to wait to get Danny ready, he doesn't have to wait until he's inside Danny, doesn't have to make sure no effort is wasted. 

Danny gives a particularly forceful suck, and Steve just relaxes into it. He lets his balls tighten and his cock pump, and his vision grey out as he collapses back against the pillows. Steve's orgasm washes over him, and it's just as much a revelation as it was the first time with Danny. 

"Danny, Danny, Danny," Steve sighs, unable to stop saying his name. "God, I fucking love you."

Danny laughs, Steve's slowly-softening cock falling out of his mouth finally. "I guess I did alright, then?"

Pulling Danny close, Steve mutters something affirmative. Everything feels hazy and too good to be true, and Steve doesn't want this dream to end.

"Not a dream," Danny says in response to the words that must have slipped out. He runs his hands over Steve's chest as he kneels between Steve's legs. When he leans forward to kiss Steve, his hard cock slips against the crease of Steve's hip. 

Needing to take care of Danny, Steve gets his wits about him and rolls them over. He ends up straddling Danny's stomach, and looking down, he sees Danny's pupils are blown wide and dark under his half-lowered eyelids. 

With a shimmy of his hips, Danny suddenly gets his cock behind Steve's balls and running up the crack of his ass. "This okay?" Danny asks, his hands running up Steve's thighs.

"Y-yeah," Steve says, stuttering when Danny's cock slips across his asshole. It's not a sensation Steve can say he's familiar with, but having just come makes him much less concerned with unfamiliar sensations. Especially when they give him a little spark of follow-up pleasure. 

When Danny thrusts up again, Steve moves with him, making sure the head of Danny's cock rubs against his asshole. This time, the pleasure is a little more intense, and Steve makes a surprised, "Oh!"

"Yeah?" Danny asks, breathing fast as he does it again. "Steve, God! You'd like that, huh? My cock in your ass?"

The slide of Danny's cock gets slicker, precome and sweat easing the way, and Steve can't help but grind down harder, trying to increase the friction he suddenly needs. "Danny!"

Some combination of Danny pushing up and Steve bearing down causes the head of Danny's cock to catch on the rim of Steve's asshole. "Shit," Danny cries, pulling back and thrusting again. He closes his eyes and throws his head back, the muscles in his jaw clenching, his fingers digging into Steve's thighs. 

Hot come splatters against Steve's lower back, dripping down into his crack and making it easier for Steve on Danny's next half-thrust to let the head of his cock inside Steve's body, just an inch, as he finishes coming. 

"Yeah, fuck, God, Steve," Danny mutters, hauling himself up off the mattress. As soon as he sits up, his cock slips out, but that doesn't matter, because Danny is pulling Steve down into a breathless, desperate kiss. "Steve. Steven," Danny says, kissing Steve again and again. "God, you're so incredible."

Chuckling at the ego boost, Steve kisses Danny back, pushing his fingers back through Danny's hair. His cock is half-hard against Danny's stomach, but Steve doesn't pay much attention to it, especially when Danny's fingers slip down the back of Steve's crack. They find Steve's wet asshole and skim over it a few times before pressing in, just a little. 

Steve gasps. "Jesus, Danny!"

"That's so hot," Danny says, looking up at Steve with an astonished smile. "Think next time I could actually fuck you?"

Steve shivers at the thought. It's not something he's ever seriously considered doing before, but with Danny, he can't ever see it being painful or anything other than amazing. He gives Danny another kiss and says, "Tell you what, keep giving me blowjobs like that, and I'm pretty sure I'll let you do whatever you want."

Danny laughs and pulls Steve into another, very thorough, kiss. 

~*~

Danny tries to straighten the collar of his shirt—he went with a nice, but casual plaid collared short-sleeved shirt—but eventually gets frustrated and turns away from the mirror. Grace is standing there in her little party dress, practically tapping her foot at him. Spreading his arms, Danny asks her, "How do I look?"

"Good," she answers, her smile a little forced. "Can we go now? You promised me cupcakes."

"Only if you're on your best behavior," Danny reminds her, grateful for the distraction of falling back into dad-mode and out of I'm-about-to-meet-the-in-laws-mode. "Which means what?"

"Be polite and don't wander off," Grace replies, rolling her eyes. 

"And?" Danny prompts, pushing his feet into the pair of sandals that have been one of his few concessions to living on this island.

"And no hitting or kicking unless someone is trying to take me away from you."

Danny bends down to press a quick kiss to Grace's forehead. "That's exactly right, Monkey. Now, c'mon. Let's get in the car. We don't want to be late."

On the way out the door, Danny scoops up the two boxes of cupcakes he bought from the bakery on the way from Steve's place to Rachel's this morning. They're kind of expensive cupcakes, but Danny figures it couldn't hurt to butter up Steve's family a little. After all, Steve's relationship with Danny wasn't exactly in ASEP's plan. 

Danny's not even sure how many people are allowed to know about his relationship with Steve before someone gets in trouble. Or imprisoned.

"Are there going to be balloons at the party?" Grace asks as they get to the car, her beach bag already in the trunk, where Danny carefully sets the cupcakes.

"I don't know," Danny replies, taking a deep breath.

The whole drive, through Saturday traffic and out to the beach, Danny has to keep telling himself it's going to be fine. 

It turns out there _are_ baloons at the party, along with about six armed guards. They're plainclothes and their weapons are concealed, but Danny easily picks them out on the walk from the parking lot to the beachside shelter with all the balloons.

One of them steps onto the path in front of Danny, holding out his hand. "This is a private event, sir. I'm going to have to—"

Grace is wide-eyed, so Danny gives her an encouraging smile before cutting off the guard. "Hold your horses, there, G.I. Joe. We were invited. I'm Danny Williams, this is Grace."

The guard narrows his eyes at Danny, and then Grace, like she's somehow part of Danny's evil plot to infiltrate a stupid family picnic. "Do you have ID?"

Danny looks down at the cupcake boxes in his arms, Grace's bag over one of his shoulders, and tries to figure out how to get his ID out of his pocket.

Before he can figure it out, Steve's at Danny's side, taking the cupcake boxes out of Danny's hands and telling the guard, "They're with me, Jimmy."

"If you say so, Commander," Jimmy says, frowning as he steps aside, like he still doesn't quite trust Danny and Grace.

As they walk toward the shelter, Steve says, "It's nice to see you again, Gracie. That's a very pretty dress you're wearing."

Grace beams, and Danny can't help but smile too. "Thank you!" Grace cries, running ahead of Danny to walk with Steve. "Danno bought it for me, just for today."

"That was nice of him," Steve replies, smiling over his shoulder at Danny.

It strikes Danny how very, very in love he is, and how very, very screwed that makes him.

"I know that look," says a voice at Danny's side. Catherine. She smiles and hands Danny a beer, holding out her own bottle of seltzer for him to clink against.

"What look?" Danny asks, taking a long drink of the beer.

Catherine raises a disbelieving eyebrow at Danny, making him sigh in defeat.

"Yeah, okay. I've got a look." He checks out the party, seeing Chin and Malia over by the grill with two older women. "Do you think anyone else can tell?"

"Eh." Catherine makes a so-so gesture with her hand. Then she chuckles, pointing toward where Steve and Grace are getting the cupcakes situated on the food table. "Like father, like daughter."

"Huh?"

"Grace has the same look," Catherine says, nodding toward Danny's daughter, who's looking up at Steve with a smile and soft eyes.

Just a second of observation later, Danny sighs. "Lord help me, she does." He takes another long swallow of his beer. "At least she's got good taste."

"There's that." Catherine laughs softly.

Looking around at all the people at the party, Danny asks Catherine, "Do you know any of these people's names?"

Shaking her head with a smile around the mouth of her seltzer bottle, Catherine chuckles. "Not many. I've met Steve's parents, and Mary, obviously. I think most of the people here are Chin and Kono's family."

"Maybe I'll just stick close to you," Danny says. "We can live in anti-social ignorance together."

"Sounds good to me." She gives Danny an assessing look, and then says, "Maybe if you stand a little closer, people will assume you're the dad and they'll stop asking if they can touch my belly."

Wincing, Danny puts his arm around Catherine's shoulders. He and Catherine are pretty much the same height, so it's a comfortable stretch. "Rachel always hated that, too. She said she felt like her stomach had suddenly become community property."

"Exactly." Catherine sighs, shifting from one foot to the other.

"Alright?" Danny asks, dropping his hand to rub Catherine's lower back without thinking anything of it.

"Ohhh," Catherine sighs, leaning into Danny's touch. "If I go get us some chairs under that shade, will you get Steve to grab me something to eat?"

"Sure thing," Danny tells her, watching Catherine walk carefully toward the aforementioned chairs, both hands pressing the muscles at her lower back.

Danny heads toward the shelter and the food, catching Grace when she hurtles back in his direction. "Danno! Uncle Steve said he would take me out in the water!"

" _After_ lunch," Danny insists, greeting Steve with a hand on his elbow (and wishing he could lean in for a kiss instead). "And then a good half-hour rest, and then you and Uncle Steve can go into the water."

"Fine," Grace says, rolling her eyes at him again.

"D'you want me to introduce her to some of the Kalakaua kids?" Steve asks, looking from Grace to Danny and back again. "They're about the same age, and they might be more fun to hang out with than a bunch of grown ups."

Danny thinks it over. He'd rather keep Grace close, but the puppy-dog eyes she's giving him are really fucking persuasive. "Well, I suppose not much could happen with all these ASEP guards around," he says, crossing his arms over his chest. Looking down at Grace he says, "No going near the water, and you stay close where I can see you."

"Yeah, okay. Can I go?"

"Sure," Danny relents, turning his daughter over to Steve's care. They run off together, hand-in-hand, and Danny wonders if Steve's taking his last opportunity to be the fun uncle before his own kids are born.

Turning around, Danny realizes he's at the main shelter, all alone. Plus, he's got a pregnant woman to feed, since he just sent her baby's dad off to go play with the kids. Sighing, Danny decides to brave the strangers. They can't be any scarier than a pregnant naval officer.

"Hey, Chin," Danny says, greeting his former partner with a hug. "Malia, you're looking as beautiful as always."

Malia beams as Danny kisses her cheek. "Danny, this is my mother, Riko Mori, and my step-mother, Gayle McGarrett."

Danny tries to make his words come out in some sort of coherent manner. "Uh, hello," he gives the women a stupid wave, as neither of them offer their hands to shake. "Danny Williams, I work with Chin and Steve."

"And Kono," Chin points out, giving Danny a nudge.

"Yeah, and Kono, uh, too." Danny smiles awkwardly, not quite sure how long he has to stand here before it's polite to make his excuses.

"He's cute," Gayle says to Riko, like Danny isn't actually there. "What about for your niece? The one with the…" Gayle makes a gesture that means nothing to Danny, but makes Riko grin.

"Might work out. She's taller than him." Riko turns to Danny. "You mind women who are taller than you?"

Feeling his cheeks heat up, Danny says, "No, uh. Generally, I like tall women, but I'm not looking for anything right now. Honestly."

"Aunties," Chin says gently, shaking his head. Pointing to the grill, Chin asks, "You want something to eat, Danny?"

"Yes, please," Danny replies, his mouth watering at the smell of the burgers Malia is very obviously in charge of grilling. "Oh, and give me something for Catherine, too. She's waiting on me."

"Steve's Catherine?" Riko asks, giving Danny a long blink.

"Yeah?" Danny replies, taking the first plate Malia hands him, and then the second. He's got his beer tucked precariously between his arm and his chest.

Gayle pats Danny's shoulder sadly. "Oh, honey. You know she's Steve's for the next five years, right? That's a long time to wait."

"What?" Danny asks, laughing nervously. "You think I— Oh, no, no. Catherine and I are just friends. _And_ I know better than to keep a pregnant woman waiting for food, so if you'll excuse me…"

Danny beats a hasty retreat, moving along the food table with both plates. He's not quite sure what Catherine likes, so he decides to get her one of everything, and hope for the best. He's just reaching the end of the table when an older man joins him.

"Danny, right?" the man says, standing between Danny and the forks.

Huffing a little, Danny says, "Yeah. You want to set me up with someone's niece, too?"

The man laughs, a deep belly laugh that catches Danny off-guard. "Sorry. My wife can be a little meddlesome on occasion. She does it out of love."

The "my wife" comment makes Danny instantly aware of who he's talking to. Looking up, Danny recognizes John McGarrett, both from the photos around Steve's house, and from the attack on the McGarrett compound that he and Chin helped thwart. "Mr. McGarrett," Danny says, setting down one of the plates and offering John his hand. "It's nice to meet you."

John's handshake is firm, but not crushing, and he gives Danny a smile. "It's nice to formally meet you, too. I know Chin and Steven both think very highly of you."

"Thanks," Danny says, biting his tongue so he doesn't say something stupid like, "I'm fucking your son, Steve. I hope you don't mind."

"Here, why don't I take this one?" John says, reaching forward and taking the plate out of Danny's hand. This allows Danny to hold onto his beer with one hand, and carry the second plate with his other. "Where are we delivering these? To Steve?"

"Catherine, actually," Danny replies. "Steve's off playing with my daughter, Grace, and the other kids." Danny nods out at the group of them, who appear to be trying to tag Steve without being caught by him.

John watches the group for a moment and smiles. "He's going to be a good father, isn't he?"

"Yeah, I think so," Danny replies, realizing probably too late that he's got that look on his face again. Schooling his face into something more appropriate, Danny says, "Catherine's over here."

"Hey, Catherine," John calls as they approach her, bending down to give her a one-armed hug. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, tired," she replies, watching as Danny sets down his plate and then takes the one from John to give to her. "And hungry. Thanks, Danny."

"No problem," Danny says, taking the seat on Catherine's left as John takes the one on her right. "Steve ran off with my date, so I guess that makes me yours for the day."

Catherine laughs, reaching over and squeezing Danny's arm before turning to John. "How's life on base treating you, John?"

"Gayle hates it," John replies, sitting back in his chair and stretching his hands behind his head, one foot propped up on the opposite knee. Danny tries not to notice how he's seen Steve pull that same pose on a semi-daily basis. "All her friends are on this side of the island, and it's a pain getting through security and then driving all the way over here and back, all before dark." Leaning closer, John explains, "She doesn't drive at night anymore, you know."

"D'you think ASEP will let you guys find someplace else to live, now that we've got Victor Hesse in custody?" Danny asks, watching as Catherine makes a face and scoops something off her plate. He holds his plate closer to hers, letting her dump the offending casserole off onto him. 

"I don't know," John replies. "I think maybe they would if I asked, but honestly, I'm okay with being hard to reach for now. Which reminds me," he holds up a finger, "I've got a few things for Steve back on base."

"Things having to do with this case he's working for you?" Catherine asks, plate in her lap and both hands wrapped around her burger.

John puts his finger beside his nose and nods, which strikes Danny as a little odd, until he sees how close one of the ASEP guards has wandered.

"Daddy, daddy!" Grace cries, pulling Danny's attention away from the possibly-eavesdropping guard. "Did you see me? Steve caught the other kids, but he couldn't catch me!"

Danny catches Grace in a tight hug, fairly certain Steve had given her an unfair advantage. "I _did_ see, Monkey! You were so fast!"

"Can I eat now, Danno?" She asks, turning a wary eye on Danny's plate of food. Grace isn't a picky eater, but he can see how she wouldn't be that familiar with some of the more Asian-inspired dishes on his plate. Rachel and Stan don't keep a particularly varied diet, and god knows Danny doesn't know how to cook anything other than the Italian dishes he grew up on. 

As Danny starts to get up, Steve cuts in, taking Grace's hand. "C'mon. Let's let your dad eat. I'll help you get a plate." Steve winks at Danny, making Danny have to fight away that stupid expression that threatens to spread across his face again.

"That's cute," Catherine says, as soon as Steve and Grace are out of earshot.

"Grace?" Danny asks, trying not to watch the way Steve's ass moves in the running shorts he's wearing.

"Steve," Catherine says. "He's practicing his fathering skills on your daughter."

Danny scoffs, mostly to hide the way his heart skips a beat at the thought. "My daughter is eight years old. Eight years old is easy as pie, compared to the first few years." John snorts. "Isn't that the truth? We had Steve, Freddie, and Malia right in a row, within a year. Now _that_ was interesting!"

"Oh, don't say that!" Catherine moans. "Kono and I are only two months apart. I'm dreading what the nursery is going to be like."

"I'll call and see if Nani is available to help you guys out," John says. "She's getting up there in years, but boy she was a dream at getting babies to sleep. Plus, she's already cleared ASEP's background checks."

"That would be awesome, thank you," Catherine replies. "I know ASEP was going to assign someone to help with childcare, but I'd feel better if it was someone you trusted."

"Nani looked after all my kids as babies," John assures Catherine. "There's no one I trust more."

Before Danny can lament that he and Rachel had to make do with Danny's parents and siblings helping out when they could, someone taps him on the shoulder. Looking up, Danny's surprised to see an unfamiliar woman getting his attention. She's wearing casual clothes, but the two plainclothes ASEP guards flanking her tell Danny she's anything but a civilian. 

"Detective Williams, may I speak with you? In private?"

"Hayley?" John asks, but the woman gives him a shake of her head. 

Danny doesn't want to cause a scene, especially not here at Chin and Malia's party, so he sets down his things and stands, pausing briefly to put a hand on Catherine's shoulder. "Hey, tell Grace I'll be right back, okay?"

Catherine nods, and then this Hayley person walks away at a brusque pace, that of course Danny is meant to follow.

"What's this about?" Danny asks, glad when the woman approaches a set of empty picnic tables not too far away from the party. 

"I'm Corporal Whitesides," she says, extending her hand to Danny. "We met at Tripler Hospital, some months back."

As Danny takes her hand and shakes it, he admits, "I didn't recognize you without the uniform. What's this about?"

"Will you sit?" she asks, pointing to the picnic table. Her two guards are an unconvincingly casual distance away.

"Do I have a choice?" Danny replies, but he sits, wanting to get whatever this is out of the way quickly. 

Whitesides sits down across the table from Danny and takes a sheaf of papers from her bag. "It has come to my attention that you've been spending an inordinate number of nights sleeping within the McGarrett compound."

Warily, Danny asks, "And?"

"And while I understand I said I would look the other way, it's becoming increasingly difficult to explain your presence on the compound to my superiors." 

"So, what?" Danny asks, watching the regretful look on the corporal's face. "You're going back on your promise? You know Steve's not going to be happy with that. I've been his partner at work for a little while now, and I gotta tell you, he gets some crazy ideas about how best to complete his objectives. If I was you—"

"Detective Williams," Whitesides breaks in, pushing her papers across the table toward Danny. "Look, there's precedent here, a way to make the system work to your advantage."

"Yeah?" Danny asks, feeling slimy the moment he pulls the papers closer. "What is this?"

"A service contract," Whitesides explains. "I am hiring you as part-time live-in parenting help for the McGarrett compound. You will be allowed to live on the compound, and collect a modest salary."

"I don't want your money," Danny insists, skimming the first page of the contract and flipping to the second. 

"Then give it to charity," Whitesides insists. "Set up a college fund for your daughter. I don't care, but if you're going to be on the compound on a regular basis, I need to pay you. It's the only legitimate way to explain your presence on a daily basis."

Danny sighs and looks down at the contract in his hands. He wonders if Corporal Whitesides realizes that she's proposing to pay him for having a relationship with Steve. She's turning Danny into a sex worker. 

In any other context, Danny would have to arrest himself, but this is ASEP, so the standard rules don't apply. Fuck.

Flipping the pages of the contract closed, Danny says, "I'm going to have a lawyer look over this before I sign it."

"I'm afraid you won't be allowed onto the compound until you do sign it," Whitesides replies. 

Danny frowns at her, but he can play this game too. "Fine. I guess I'll see that lawyer as soon as possible."

Whitesides nods."I'd assume so. Oh, and Detective Williams?"

"Yeah?"

"It's very important to us that any children coming out of the McGarrett compound be _McGarrett_ children. You understand, I'm sure."

Danny blinks at the corporal before he realizes she's insinuating it would be unwise of him to father the children Steve is supposed to be fathering. 

"Yeah, I get it. Can I go back to my friends now, or would you like to hire me for another fake position?" Danny asks, rolling up the papers and sticking them in his back pocket as he stands.

Taking a card from her bag, Whitesides holds it out to Danny. "You can send the signed contract to this address. As soon as everything is in order, I'll inform the compound guards that you've been put back on the list."

"Yeah, okay, thanks," Danny says sarcastically, giving her a sardonic smile and heading back toward the party.

Steve intercepts Danny halfway back, frowning and asking quietly, "What was that about?"

Danny hesitates, and considers lying, telling Steve it was nothing. Then he thinks about how he's going to explain not being allowed into Steve's home if he doesn't come clean. Sighing, Danny takes the roll of papers out of his back pocket and hands them to Steve. "I've been ordered to sign those before spending another night at your place."

"Live-in parenting consultant?" Steve asks, frowning.

"Apparently the only legitimate reason for me to be at the compound so often," Danny says with a scoff. "Something tells me your officer got in over her head, telling you we could be together. This is her covering her tracks."

Steve flips through the rest of the pages and then asks, "So, are you going to sign it?"

"After I have my lawyer make sure I'm not signing my soul away, yeah," Danny says with a nod. "I'll sign it."

"Danny..." Steve's voice conveys his worry. "You're already compromising so much being with me. Now this?"

"Yeah, well," Danny says, taking the papers back from Steve. "I walked away once, and everyone was miserable. I'm not going to do it again over some bullshit government paperwork."

Steve still looks conflicted, his brow furrowed, but he shrugs and says, "You know if you sign those papers, you'll be contractually obligated to help us with the babies. I'm going to hold you to this." He smiles as he gestures toward the papers.

Steve's damn smile is infectious, and Danny can't help but return it. "I was gonna help, anyway," Danny insists, throwing a mock-smack in Steve's direction. "For _free_."

"Uh-huh," Steve replies sarcastically. 

Before Danny can respond and set the record straight, Grace comes running up toward them. "Danno, Danno! Can I have a cupcake now?"

"Yeah, sure, Monkey," Danny says, rolling up the papers and putting them back in his pocket. He puts his hands on Grace's shoulders and turns her back toward the picnic shelter. "Let's go pick out the best one, just for you."

~*~

"I think this is the last one," John says as he pushes a box of picnic supplies into the bed of Steve's truck. 

Steve follows it with the leftover bag of charcoal and Malia's oversized beach umbrella. "Thanks, Dad," he says, wiping some stray sweat from his forehead. He uses his other hand to clap John's shoulder. "Well, I guess I should get home."

"Hang on a minute," John says, grasping Steve by the elbow. "I didn't want to mention this over the phone, but I've been getting these brown envelopes from someone, every couple of days."

"Envelopes?" Steve asks, and he has to admit, his curiosity is piqued. 

John nods. "So far, each one contains a piece of the evidence that got taken from the compound that night."

"Someone's giving it back?" Steve asks, frowning as he crosses his arms. "Who would do that? And why one piece at a time?"

John shrugs. "Whoever it is must want to help, but maybe they're afraid of getting caught. You'll stop by the base sometime soon?"

"Yeah," Steve agrees, eager to have more than Mary's cell phone pictures to go from. "In the morning, maybe?"

"Sure," John replies. He pauses, standing still as he gives Steve a look.

"What?" Steve asks.

Crossing his arms, John says, "I met your Danny."

"Okay…" Steve keeps his mouth shut on the questions threatening to burst forth, looking for approval like he's twelve years old again.

"Seemed nice," John says, his voice a little _too_ casual in that way that makes Steve's heartbeat speed up.

"He is," Steve replies, hoping his short response will get John to just make his point already.

"And that daughter of his—" John almost gives a smile.

"Grace," Steve supplies.

Nodding, John continues, "Grace. She's quite the character."

Steve can't help but laugh a little. "Like father, like daughter, I guess." He wonders how much his own kids are going to take after him. A deep part of his brain wishes they'd actually take after Danny, as impossible as that is. 

"True, true," John says with a sigh. He shuffles around on his feet for a couple of seconds. "Any clue what Corporal Whitesides was doing here? She pulled your Danny away from the party. It seemed serious. Is he an ASEP kid, too?"

Steve can't help but notice the way John has said "your Danny" more than once. He wonders how many other "Danny"s John could possibly have in his life that he's assigning this one under Steve's possession. "Danny? No. He'd rather have nothing to do with ASEP."

"Then why—"

"Dad," Steve snaps, wary of John's interest in the subject. "What's with the third degree? I thought you were retired from the force."

John looks gratifyingly abashed. "Sorry, son. Once a cop, always a cop, I guess."

Steve watches John, trying to assess whether or not it's worth admitting his relationship with Danny. After all, Steve has never heard John say anything good about same-sex relationships. Not that Steve has ever heard him say anything _bad_ either, but the lack of good comments makes Steve hesitate. Well, that and Steve assumes that in the best-case scenario, John is going to have a lot of questions, and Steve doesn't really have those answers for _himself_ , much less for his father. 

Steve knows he loves Danny. It was a love that snuck up on him when he wasn't looking for it, when he didn't even think himself _capable_ of it, and then it overwhelmed Steve into action. How does Steve explain that to a man who never strayed from the partners ASEP gave him? Who never wanted _more_?

Steve figures the cover story ASEP is giving Danny should work with John as well. "Danny's so good with Grace, I asked him for some help learning the ropes. ASEP is going to compensate him for his time."

"Ah," John says, letting out a loud breath in what sounds like relief. "Hey, let me call Nani, too. You're going to need someone full time, and she's already passed ASEP's background checks from when she watched you lot."

"Nani?" Steve asks with a chuckle. "She's got to be a hundred years old by now!"

Rolling his eyes, John says, " _Maybe_ seventy, but she had a way with you kids. Always got you to sleep no problem." He chuckles a little. "Your mother _hated_ how outclassed she was at the whole baby thing."

The mention of Doris makes Steve clench his jaw. He remembers her mostly through John's stories, and the possibility that she may have been keeping an eye on him without bothering to spend any time with him has been weighing on Steve lately.

"Anyway, I already told Catherine I would call Nani," John says, breaking into Steve's thoughts. "If she's available, there's no need to recruit your work friends."

Danny's much more than a "work friend", but Steve just wants to drop the subject. "Yeah, okay. Give her a call," he says, pulling John into a quick hug. "See you later."

"Bye, son," John says, giving Steve's shoulder a final pat. "I'll see you when you come by tomorrow."

Oh, the mysteriously-returned evidence. Right. "See you then."

~*~

Seeing the light from the TV through Steve's window, Catherine decides to head in that direction, rather than going toward her cabin to crash. She gives a light knock on the door, and pauses only a second before opening it and letting herself in. 

Steve looks up from where he's sprawled out on his couch, beer in one hand and what looks like _Top Gun_ on the TV. "Hey, Catherine."

Returning Steve's smile with a relieved one of her own, Catherine gets the rest of the way into the house. "Hey. I could use some company," she admits. "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," he replies, sitting up to make room for her on the couch. "I could, uh—" Steve gives Catherine the smile she thinks of as "intentionally cute". "I could use the company, too."

"Danny's still banned from the compound, huh?" Catherine asks with a chuckle as she sits next to Steve, trying to arrange herself in a comfortable position. The prospect of comfort is getting more and more difficult the bigger her stomach grows.

"Yeah," Steve replies, putting his arm around Catherine and scooting closer to her. "But this is great, too." He skims his hand over Catherine's belly, smiling softly. "How're you feeling? Did you eat yet?"

"Pizza?" Catherine suggests. She has about a million pamphlets in her cabin about how to eat healthy during pregnancy, but honestly she just wants greasy, calorie-dense foods like nobody's business. 

"Sure," he says with an indulgent smile. Arching his back, Steve looks upside-down out the window behind them. "You think Kono wants to join us?"

Catherine chuckles. "Yeah, she'd probably be upset if we ordered and didn't get any for her."

Steve pulls out his phone and sends a text, which Catherine shamelessly reads over his shoulder. "Family dinner? Pizza?"

Catherine smiles despite herself. " _Family_ dinner?" she asks, hugging Steve's arm. 

"Yeah." Steve gives Catherine a semi-wary look. "Is that okay? Growing up, didn't your family eat all together most nights?"

Catherine shakes her head. "Once a week. The rest of the nights, my dad rotated around to our separate family dinners."

"Oh," Steve says, his brow furrowed. 

"I think I would've liked your way better," Catherine insists. "My sister, Georgia, and I always hated splitting up for dinner. We always ended up back at one or the others' houses afterward." She looks down at her belly, rubbing a hand over where the baby's kicks keeps hitting. "I think I'd like that for him."

Steve grins and says, "Okay," as he leans forward to kiss her. Catherine thinks, even though Steve has this thing with Danny that she doesn't quite understand, Steve's kisses still feel the same. The physical affection is reassuring, along with Steve's suggestion of family meals together. It makes Catherine feel more like she belongs here. Like the miscarriage didn't screw up everything between her and Steve.

The door opens as Kono lets herself in. "Pizza?" she asks, flopping down in the arm chair next to the sofa. Catherine envies Kono's flexibility, though she knows it's only a matter of time before Kono's big as a house too. "What kind of pizza?"

Steve holds up his hands. "I'll leave it up to you ladies to decide what you're in the mood for."

"Pineapple," Kono says immediately. She gives Catherine a sly smile.

"And pepperoni?" Catherine guesses with a laugh.

"You read my mind, sistah," Kono replies with a grin. "I am _starving_."

Steve laughs. "I guess I'd better order right away."

Her stomach rumbling at the thought, Catherine tells Steve, "Get lots of hot wings, too."

"Oh, and that dessert fried-dough thing," Kono adds.

Catherine insists, "At _least_ two of those."

Shaking his head and smiling, Steve says, "It's a good thing ASEP gives us a food budget. Otherwise you two would be eating me out of house and home!"

Catherine laughs and settles back against the couch as Steve leaves the room to place the call. Looking over at Kono, she asks, "Hey, maternity clothes shopping on Saturday?"

"You're on," Kono says, reaching over to pat Catherine's knee. "I only have one pair of pants left that fits." She lifts up her shirt and pulls on the waistband of her jeans.

"You're still wearing regular pants?" Catherine cries. She lifts up her own shirt, showing her jeans with the full elastic belly-panel. "I've been wearing these since 8 weeks, honest to god! What are you now? Twelve weeks?"

"Thirteen," Kono replies with a shrug. "I haven't gained any weight, since I've been so sick."

"I suppose that's true."

Rubbing her stomach, Kono says, "I'm _starving_ now, though. The stretchy pants are probably a good idea!"

"They're so much more comfortable." Catherine stretches the panel on her jeans and lets it snap back gently. The baby must have heard the noise, because he kicks back. She rubs the place where he kicked, smiling a little. It's such a weird feeling, one that Catherine's sure she's never going to get used to, but she likes knowing he's okay. She smiles at Kono. "You'll thank me once you get into a pair that fits."

Kono grins and Catherine thinks this family dinner thing was a great idea.

~*~

Steve rubs his eyes and takes another sip of his coffee as he enters HQ. Danny heads him off in the hallway, asking, "Rough night?"

"Catherine started snoring," Steve explains, though he's not certain how much Danny wants to hear about Steve's sleeping arrangements when he's not there. "I spent most of the night going over the evidence this mystery person has been sending to my dad."

"Get anywhere?" Danny asks, placing himself suspiciously in front of Steve. 

"No," Steve replies, looking over Danny. "Who's that in my office?"

"Okay," Danny says, waving Steve's attention back toward Danny's face. "Good news, I signed those papers this morning, which probably means I can come over tonight." His eyebrows wiggle, but Steve's too concerned with this visitor to smile.

"That's great, Danno," Steve says, scaring up an approving look to spare Danny's feelings, before he points toward his office. "What's going on here?"

Danny sighs and scratches at his eyebrow. "That would be the bad news. She says she has orders."

"Orders to do what?" Steve asks, taking two steps closer to his office. The woman—Danny said "she"—has short hair and appears to be wearing a business suit. 

"Orders to do you," Danny says shortly, crossing his arms. "ASEP orders."

Steve's chest clenches painfully. "What? ASEP orders? They didn't call me! Danny, I didn't know."

"Just, go find out what her deal is," Danny says, turning Steve toward the new woman. "Something about her seemed off."

"Off how?" Steve asks, taking a few steps and getting a better look. That's definitely a business suit. Steve has never been much for serious women. He can only imagine how awful sex with her is going to be. 

"Couldn't say." Danny gives Steve a shove in the direction of his office, along with a good-luck wave. 

Steve doesn't try to hide how pissed off he is that this woman has shown up at his place of work without any warning. Intellectually, he knew ASEP wasn't going to stop at just Catherine and Kono, but somehow he'd gotten it into his head that the two of them, plus Danny, were Steve's family. Three partners were far more than enough, and now Steve is going to have to get used to another one?

He pushes his way through the glass door of his office and demands, "Who are you?"

She startles a little bit, turning to face Steve. Pulling her ID from her jacket pocket, she says, "Special Agent Jenna Kaye."

"FBI?" Steve asks as she opens her ID folder. His heart drops when he sees the logo.

"CIA," Kaye says, letting Steve take the ID out of her hands. She picks up a stack of papers that she had the nerve to put on Steve's desk while he wasn't here. "I have orders to join you."

"No," Steve says, exchanging the ID for the papers and skimming them. They look just like Catherine's, and by now Steve recognizes Corporal Whitesides's signature on the bottom of the cover page. He shoves the papers back at Kaye and crosses his arms over his chest.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" she asks, her eyes widening as she straightens out the papers.

Steve gives Agent Kaye a long look, and then reaches for his phone. He dials, and when his call is answered, he says, "Corporal Whitesides, please. This is Steve McGarrett."

"What are you doing?" Agent Kaye says, and she seems a little flustered for a CIA agent. Steve understands what Danny meant when he said she seemed off. "Why are you calling?"

Steve covers the microphone and replies, "A few months ago, my family was attacked. One of our guards was killed, and my sister was kidnapped. Excuse me for being a little paranoid."

"O-oh. Of course," she says, again, more timid than Steve would expect from a CIA agent. Maybe it's an act to put Steve off guard. 

"Commander McGarrett, I think I know why you're calling," Whitesides says when she picks up the phone. 

Steve huffs. "So you did send her."

"Affirmative."

"Is this some sort of— Are you punishing me?" Steve asks. "I seem to remember telling you back in September that I didn't want _anyone_ CIA."

"I do have that note in my file, yes," she replies, very matter-of-fact.

Steve fumes, the white-hot of his anger only slightly diminished by the shocked look on Kaye's face. "So, send her somewhere else!"

"I'm afraid these orders come from further up the chain than either of us," Whitesides replies, her voice incredibly calm. "I can file an appeal on your behalf, but that's going to take time, and I can't guarantee it'll be approved. The higher-ups do tend to insist on a six-week acclimation period before hearing an appeal."

"So, I have to accept this stranger into my home?" Steve looks over at Kaye, who quickly averts her eyes and busies herself with the buttons on her suit jacket.

"Your home belongs to the U.S. Government, so yes."

Steve swears under his breath before responding. "Fine. Expect a formal appeal letter from me in six weeks."

"I'm looking forward to it," Whitesides says sweetly. "Oh, and tell Detective Williams he's back on the list as of this afternoon. You're welcome." She hangs up before Steve can respond.

He kind of wishes he could punch her.

Putting his phone away, Steve faces Agent Kaye, staring her down so she knows he won't allow any funny business. She crumples a little under his gaze, looking almost disappointed, and maybe like she might start crying.

Oh, shit.

"Okay," he says, trying to keep his voice calm, but still no-nonsense. "I think maybe we got off on the wrong foot."

Kaye perks up a little bit, nodding. "Yeah, I think so."

Steve furrows his brow at her for a moment before continuing. "I also think either you're very, very good, or there's no way you were a field agent."

Twisting her mouth to the side of her face, Kaye dithers for a moment longer before relenting. "Okay, I'm not a field agent. I'm an analyst. _Was_ an analyst. I took a leave of absence for this."

"Five years is a long leave of absence," Steve points out, mostly confused about why they sent Kaye to _him_. The McGarrett line is known for intelligence, yes, but also athleticism. Agent Kaye looks like she's never attempted a pull-up in her life. And someone in the brass pushed her on Steve?

Something weird is going on.

"Yeah, well," Kaye replies. "There wasn't much keeping me in D.C. anymore, so…"

There's more of a story there, Steve is sure of it, but he's fairly certain he doesn't want to ask until he gets to know her a little better.

Steve looks at Agent Kaye for another long moment, and then says, "Why don't you go to the compound and get settled? I'm sure one of the guards can show you around."

Nodding, Kaye says, "Sure. And I can just take a cab, or…"

"Yeah, here," Steve says, heading to his office door and holding it open until Kaye gets the hint and leaves through it. 

As he follows her awkwardly toward the main entrance, Steve notices Danny and Kono standing side-by-side against the wall of the corridor, both of them with their arms crossed and hostile looks on their faces. The biggest surprise is Catherine standing right next to them, wearing the same expression. Kaye falters under the combined weight of their disapproval.

"Catherine?" Steve asks, putting himself between the three of them and Agent Kaye. "What are you doing here?"

"I called her," Danny says, raising his hand and smiling when Steve frowns at him. "I thought she might want to be here for this."

"For what?"

"To meet the new girl," Catherine says, leaning to the side to see around Steve. "Hi, I'm Catherine."

"Jenna Kaye," she says, sort of extending her hand, but taking it back when Catherine makes no move to grasp it.

Steve gives Catherine a warning look, but she feigns innocence. Kono strong-arms Steve out of the way to nod at Kaye. "I'm Kono." She doesn't extend her hand either.

"You're both…" Jenna says, the rest of her question hanging in the air, like she's not bold enough to say it out loud. Her eyes drift toward Catherine's stomach.

"Hi! Uh, hey," Danny says, putting himself in front of Steve. "Danny. Williams. I'm Steve's partner." There's a subtle Jersey "back off" in Danny's tone, that right now Steve kind of appreciates. Of course, in the long run, if Steve's appeal isn't granted, he's going to have to do his duty by Kaye. In doing that duty, Steve is going to have to ask Danny (well, and Kono and Catherine, to be honest) to tone down the attitude.

"Hello?" Kaye responds, obviously picking up on the lack of welcome coming from Steve's family.

That's when Chin shows up. "Hey," he says, all friendly smiles and outstretched hand for Kaye to take. "Chin Ho Kelly. It's nice to meet you."

Kaye gives Chin a relieved smile and shakes his hand. "I take it you work with Steve?"

"Yes," Chin replies with a chuckle. "I'm also his future brother-in-law."

"Yeah, if you and Malia ever get around to setting the date," Kono teases. "How long have you been engaged now? Two years?"

"We're getting to it," Chin insists, chuckling again. 

Chin's good humor appears to have broken some of the tension, so Steve hustles Kaye away from his partners and toward the door. When he's mostly out of earshot, he says, "I'm sorry about them. They're kind of protective."

"Catherine and Kono are the two partners you've already been assigned?" Kaye asks, like she needs to make sure for her own understanding of the situation.

"Yes, they are," Steve replies. "We'll have a family dinner tonight, I think. Get off to a better start."

Kaye nods thoughtfully, looking back over her shoulder. "And—Danny was his name?"

Steve nods. 

"Danny is…?" She asks, implying something. 

Steve doesn't want to jump to any conclusions about what Kaye could be implying, but he can see where she might get some ideas. After all, Danny had set himself in the same camp as Catherine and Kono. Three peas in a pod. Steve can't fault Agent Kaye— _Jenna_ —from taking that cue and running with it. 

With an awkward smile, Steve says, "Danny's a discussion for later." It was difficult enough thinking about revealing his relationship with Danny to Catherine and Kono, and Steve knew them. Jenna is a stranger. Who knows what she would do with that information?

"Oh. Alright, then." Jenna gives Steve a half-hearted wave. "See you later."

Steve watches Jenna leave, and then heads back to his family. "What was that?" Steve asks of them, mostly looking at Danny. "We all knew this was going to happen eventually."

"It's very sudden," Danny points out. "And I figured Kono and I were here. Catherine shouldn't be left out."

"I appreciate that, Danny," Catherine says, leaning over and kissing Danny on the cheek. "Thank you."

"Welcome," Danny says with a sharp nod. He turns to Steve. "So, what's her deal? Why did she show up _here_?"

"CIA analyst," Steve replies, noticing Danny's suspicion and letting it fuel his own. "Catherine, you've still got a lot of Agency contacts from working Naval Intel, right?"

"Right," Catherine replies. "Want me to see what I can dig up?"

"Yeah, thanks." Steve leans forward, giving Catherine a hug. "A full jacket, if you can."

"You got it." As she leaves, Catherine squeezes Danny's arm and gives Kono a quick hug.

"Chin and I will see what we come up with, too," Kono says, leaving Steve standing with Danny.

"I swear," Steve says, wanting to reach for Danny, but unsure whether it would be a good idea in this setting, "it's like someone got word about me and you and decided to throw a distraction into the works."

"Could be," Danny agrees, reaching out and cupping Steve's arm with his hand. Steve relishes the contact after a long week of Danny being banned from the compound. "Could also be the fact that you got both Catherine and Kono pregnant already, and they want to keep 'production' rolling along." Danny uses his fingers to add air-quotes for emphasis. 

Steve nods, leaning as close to Danny as he dares. "Yeah, you're probably right." With a smile for Danny, he asks, "You're coming over tonight, right?"

Danny rolls his eyes. "What do you think?"

By now, Steve is used to the way Danny uses sarcasm to cover his deeper emotions. He gives Danny his biggest smile and says, "Good."

"Think maybe we could get a little work done first?" Danny asks, pointing over his shoulder to the rest of the office suite. "Try to act professional?"

"Well, you are wearing a tie," Steve says, tugging on said article of clothing. "I suppose it couldn't hurt."

~*~

Kono makes it home first after work, having begged off while Danny and Steve were still arguing about what to get for dinner. As long as it's hot and not too greasy, Kono will eat it. 

Lately, they've been doing family dinners in Steve's dining room, so Kono heads straight to his place. The table seats Kono, Steve and Catherine comfortably, and it wouldn't be much of a stretch to fit Danny at the table, too. But with both Danny and this new girl? Kono's sure it's going to be a tight squeeze. 

There are other houses on the compound—houses meant to hold the larger numbers that come with an expanding family, but none of them has been cleaned out or prepared in any sort of way. Supposedly once Catherine has her baby, she's going to move to one of those big houses. Kono, too.

She's kind of dreading the move. After almost nine months, she's gotten used to her little cabin. Kono knows she has a baby coming, and that the baby is going to need space, but Kono doesn't want to think about all the things that require the space. Changing tables and cribs and diapers and little clothes…

Kono just wants her surfboards back, please and thank you.

As Kono lets herself into Steve's place, and goes to punch in the security code, she finds she doesn't need it. Automatically, her mind goes to that morning she found the front gate wide open and Steve sprawled out on the floor of his living room, just regaining consciousness. 

_Maybe it's just Catherine_ , Kono tells herself, though she does pull her weapon out of its holster, aiming it at the floor as she moves. She hasn't been able to put this skill to the test in the field yet, but she's grateful that Steve hasn't insisted she go unarmed for the duration of her pregnancy. The badge at Kono's hip comes with the responsibility to defend herself and others. 

Or in this case, her home.

A noise draws Kono's attention toward the office. She takes a few steps over to get a look at the intruder, and sees a somewhat familiar figure hovering over Steve's desk. "Agent Kaye?"

Kaye startles and turns around, her eyes wide. "Oh, hey. I, uh…"

Stowing her weapon, Kono frowns and asks, "What are you doing in here? Don't you have your own space?"

"Oh, I do," Kaye says, pointing out the door before wrapping her arms around herself. "I guess I just got bored and curious. Sorry."

Kono lets out a relieved breath. "Oh, I can understand. It's a little stifling at first, not being able to come and go quite as you please." She smiles. "C'mon. Let me show you where Steve keeps the candy he thinks no one knows about."

"Thanks. Kono, right?"

"Yeah," Kono says with a chuckle, leading the way out of the office and toward the kitchen. 

As Kaye follows, she says, "You can call me Jenna." When they get to the kitchen, Jenna pauses in the doorway. "About earlier? Does everyone really want me to leave? I didn't think I was that weird-looking."

Suddenly, Kono can't help but feel for her. In some sort of effort to explain, she says, "We're just protective of Steve."

"But he doesn't want me either," Jenna points out, moving a step further into the kitchen. "What does he have against the CIA?"

With a sigh, Kono opens the pantry and lifts onto her tiptoes as she reaches for the candy behind the row of canned goods on the top shelf. She's fairly certain she's the only one, besides Steve, who's tall enough to have discovered this stash. 

"Steve's mother," Kono says as she turns and puts the big zipper bag full of smaller bags of all sorts of sweets on the island counter. "She was CIA. Hell, maybe she still is."

"Oh," Jenna replies. "So, he doesn't want his partners to be too much like his mother? I suppose that sort of makes sense. I mean, they say you end up marrying someone who reminds you of your opposite-sex parent, but that's probably all pseudopsychology and—"

"No, Steve's mother abandoned him when he was five," Kono explains. "So that she could go back to working for the CIA. He's got a little bit of a grudge."

"Ohhh," Jenna says, peering into the bag when Kono opens it and offers it to her. She takes out a chocolate and unwraps it from the foil. "Yeah, that makes more sense." Popping the chocolate into her mouth, Jenna talks around it, "So, family dinner? What's that like?"

Kono blinks slowly as she watches Jenna's expression for any sign that she might be joking. "Seriously? It's dinner. As a family."

"But is that like when Steve decides who he's taking to bed that night? Is there something I should wear?" Jenna sounds completely serious, maybe even a little scared, despite her nonchalant tone.

"That's not—" Kono says with a frustrated huff. She thought she'd heard the end of this sort of nonsense when she graduated academy. "That's not how it works. Steve doesn't just _decide_ he's going to have sex with one of us. He doesn't make demands like that."

"Oh." Jenna furrows her brow and frowns. "But Catherine is…" She holds her hand out in front of her belly, mimicking Catherine's swollen form.

"And the only way she could've gotten like that was from Steve _forcing_ her?" Kono asks, pulling a whole pouch of sour gummies out of the larger bag and stuffing one angrily into her mouth. "Catherine and Steve _like_ having sex with each other. It's part of their relationship with each other."

Kono leaves out the part where technically, both of them were paid to have sex that got Catherine pregnant. Just like Kono was.

"Is it part of your relationship with him?" Jenna asks, and Kono can't help but narrow her eyes at the question.

"A small part, yes," Kono says, thinking of the one and only time she and Steve were together in that way. To be honest, she wishes it would've happened at least a few more times—or was _still_ happening—but Kono has come to terms with the way things are. After all, it's only another four and a half years.

Jenna seems indifferent to Kono's discomfort, ploughing ahead and taking another chocolate from the bag. Kono resists the urge to snatch it out of her hand. "So, Steve's a relationship kind of guy. This is great information, thanks!"

"I'm afraid to ask what you're going to do with that information," Kono admits, stuffing another gummy into her mouth.

Rolling her eyes, Jenna says, "Cultivate a relationship with him, obviously."

"Oh, obviously," Kono replies sarcastically. "And if that doesn't work?" Kono barely has that kind of relationship with Steve, what with Catherine _and_ Danny already taking up that portion of his life.

"I'll just remind him of his contractual obligations," Jenna replies with a shrug, like she didn't just suggest using coercion to get Steve to sleep with her. "By the way, what's up with that Danny guy? Steve didn't want to talk about it earlier."

"Yeah, I'm not having that conversation with you," Kono says, taking the bag of candy and putting it back where it belongs. She kind of regrets showing it to Jenna in the first place. "In fact, I think I'm going to go take a shower before Steve and Danny get here with the food."

"Oh, Danny's coming to _family_ dinner?" Jenna asks, and Kono has to stop herself from balling up her fists.

Obviously Jenna knows nothing about _ohana_ , even if she's not privy to the exact nature of Steve and Danny's relationship. Kono just hopes that ignorance doesn't ruin everything.

"Yeah," Kono says sweetly. "See you then."

As Kono leaves Steve's house, she meets Catherine coming from the car port. "What's going on?" Catherine asks, stopping Kono with a hand on her arm.

"I tried to be nice to her," Kono insists, giving Catherine's wrist a friendly squeeze of appreciation. "I really did. I just want the record to show that I tried."

With a surprised chuckle, Catherine says, "Okay. Noted." Following Kono's gaze, she looks over at Steve's place. "She's in there?"

"God knows why."

Catherine nods. "I'll go babysit until the boys get here. I know Steve wouldn't want her alone in his house."

"Is this our life now?" Kono can't help but ask. "Morning sickness and weird strangers in our homes?"

"We were strangers to each other once," Catherine says, giving Kono a wide smile. "That turned out alright."

Kono looks back at Steve's place. "Yeah, tell that to me again once you've had a conversation with her."

~*~

Dinner is an awkward affair, to say the least. Danny finds himself sitting directly across from Jenna, and she keeps giving him these _looks_. When she gets up to go use the bathroom, Danny whispers to Steve, "Am I paranoid, or has the new girl been staring at me all night?"

"Maybe you're her type," Steve teases, his hand on Danny's thigh under the table. 

"I don't care if I'm her type," Danny hisses. "It's been made clear to me, in no uncertain terms, that McGarrett babies better damn well be McGarrett babies, if you catch my drift."

"They actually said that to you?" Catherine asks from Steve's other side.

"I'm surprised that Whitesides lady didn't give me a full education in how babies are made," Danny tells her. He pats Steve's chest and says, "Sorry, babe. Fucking her is all on you."

Steve tilts his head back and groans, which makes Kono laugh. She cuts her laughter short when footsteps return to the dining room. 

Jenna smiles and asks, "Hey, what are we laughing about?"

"Oh, just this and that," Danny says, clenching his jaw when Steve's hand slides further up his thigh. He knows Jenna can't see Steve's hand from where she's sitting, but it's still embarrassing. It's been over a week since Danny got to spend some alone time with Steve. Of course his cock is going to react to Steve's touch. 

As Danny catches Steve's hand and pushes it away as firmly as he can without making a scene, it occurs to Danny that this is probably one of Steve's little rebellions against the rules. The rules say not to use grenades anywhere but a war zone. So, what does Steve do? Blows up a pawn shop to get the owner to cooperate. The rules say Steve is only supposed to sleep with his assigned partners. So, what does Steve do? Start a relationship with Danny and practically flaunt it in front of people that aren't supposed to know.

If Danny didn't love the bastard, he thinks he might hate him. 

Sitting back down at her place behind her empty plates, Jenna asks, "So, what do you guys do for fun around here?"

Kono responds somehow, but honestly, Danny can't pay attention to her with Steve's hand creeping back up his leg. Jesus, you'd think _he_ was the one who hadn't gotten laid all week, when Danny knows for a fact Steve and Catherine slept in the same bed in several instances during that time. Danny would presume that meant they'd had sex on at least one of those occasions, given what he knows about Steve and Catherine's relationship. 

"Excuse me," Danny says, standing up quickly and gathering up enough of the dirty dishes to make a trip to the kitchen plausible. They're also pretty good for holding in front of his crotch, so his current situation is less visible to the others in the room.

Of course someone follows Danny into the kitchen, and of course that someone is Steve. Steve sets his own load of dishes in the sink before tugging at Danny until they're facing one another. "I'm sorry," Steve says with big, puppy-dog eyes. "I've missed you."

Danny's annoyance melts away under that goddamn look. He leans closer to Steve, his forehead against Steve's shoulder, and breathes as Steve wraps his arms around Danny's back. "Missed you, too," Danny admits. "A lot."

Steve pulls up gently on Danny's chin at the same time he ducks down, pressing a kiss to Danny's lips. 

Of course, that's when Jenna walks into the room. "Oh!" she cries, making Danny pull back sharply from Steve, knocking his elbow against the counter in his haste. 

"Jenna," Steve says, his voice half-hopeful, half a warning. He crosses his arms and asks, "Are we gonna have a problem?"

"You know, when the guard showed me the list of people allowed into this compound," she says, eyes wide as she gives a careful smile, "I'd wondered what need we would have for a part-time child care consultant who is also a detective. Now I don't have to wonder anymore!"

"Yeah, okay. It's a sham title. But I notice you didn't answer his, uh," Danny gestures toward Steve. "His question."

Jenna looks down for a moment before taking a sharp breath. "When I knew I was going to leave D.C., I did a lot of research on the ASEP program. As a CIA analyst, I had access to certain...not quite _public_ files."

"So you already knew about Danny?" Steve asks, raising an eyebrow at her before meeting Danny's eyes for just a moment.

"No," Jenna replies. "But I've read the statistics on how many patriarchs actually have a primary partner." She lowers her voice and leans closer. "Almost all of them have someone. Usually it's one of his ASEP-chosen partners, but sometimes it's an outsider."

Steve huffs again. "You still haven't answered the question."

Nodding slowly, Jenna takes her time answering; Danny can feel his blood pressure going up with every second she spends thinking about her answer. Eventually, she starts speaking and Danny almost sighs with relief—until he hears what she has to say.

"I'd imagine with Don't Ask Don't Tell, this is something you two would like to keep to yourselves. Not to mention the fact that if this gets out, the whole McGarrett line might be called into question." Jenna smiles, and Danny feels like he might throw up. "After all, homosexual tendencies were meant to be bred out of the program."

Steve takes an aggressive step toward Jenna, making Danny feel like he needs to put a hand on Steve's shoulder, in case he needs to be held back from doing something stupid. "What do you want?"

Jenna's eyes go wide, but she holds her ground. "I want to be here," she says, taking a shaky breath. "I don't want you to send me back."

Steve's shoulder under Danny's hand tenses up, but he stands eerily still for long enough that Danny feels compelled to break the silence. 

"Okay, then. Obviously if you want to stay, you're not going to do anything to mess up the balance of things here." Danny uses his free hand to indicate the complex as a whole. "You can keep this secret—I mean, CIA, probably good at secrets, right?—and Steve doesn't send you away. Sounds like a deal to me."

"Why would you want to stay?" Steve demands, like he hasn't even heard Danny. "What are you running away from?"

Oh. Danny looks over at Steve, then at Jenna, and he can tell Steve's assessment of the situation is right on the money by the way her eyes get watery. "What happened?" Danny asks her, a little more gently—the good cop to Steve's bad cop.

"I—" Jenna pauses to swallow and look up, blinking rapidly as she shakes her head and sniffs. "I gave my field team some information that turned out to be false. Misleading. They were all killed."

"Oh." Danny watches out of the corner of his eye as Steve starts to relax. "I can definitely see how an incident like that could—"

"My fiancé was on that team," she admits softly.

Ah. Now they're getting somewhere. Danny's not quite sure what to say. Telling her he's sorry for her loss seems inappropriate somehow, given the larger conversation.

"I had bad intel, and I got my brother killed because of it," Steve says, actually giving Jenna a sad smile. 

Danny can't help but stare at Steve for a long moment, thinking over the implications of what he's just said. He blames himself for Freddie's death. It's been something Danny's wondered about, ever since they started looking into the corruption case John brought to them. Still, he's never had absolute confirmation of Steve's guilt over the matter. The realization makes Danny want to wrap Steve in his arms and never let go.

"I should go," Jenna says, turning toward the door. "Good night."

Danny watches Jenna leave, hearing the awkward excuses she makes to the others as she heads for the door, and presumably her own cabin. Catherine and Kono call their goodbyes as well, and then Danny's alone in the house with Steve.

He turns toward Steve, watching a range of emotions flicker across his face. "That could've gone worse, huh?"

"Yeah," Steve says shortly, turning away from Danny and leaning over the sink, stiff arms propping him up. He stares out the window, obviously working something over in his head.

Danny doesn't fight the urge to touch Steve, to run his hand up Steve's back and leave it heavy on Steve's shoulder. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking I'm stuck," Steve says, pouting at Danny over his shoulder. "If I file an appeal with ASEP to get her out of here, she could tell the wrong people about us, and wreck everything."

"And if you don't file an appeal?" Danny asks, more as a way to keep Steve from bottling up his thoughts than because he can't imagine what the consequences would be.

"Then she's part of the family," Steve points out. "I'll have to…" He shakes his head. "I don't know if I can."

"What happened to Mr. 'it's just sex'?" Danny asks, poking at Steve's side to get him to turn away from the counter. When he does, Danny slips his arms around Steve's waist. "Huh? Not that long ago, you were the one telling me you could totally have sex with someone you didn't love."

"Okay, first of all," Steve says, wrapping his arms around Danny's shoulders. "There's a big difference between sleeping with a friend and sleeping with a stranger."

"True," Danny concedes with a sharp nod. "And second?"

Steve pulls Danny into a hug, mumbling against Danny's neck, "You ruined it."

Danny gives a startled laugh. "I _ruined_ it? Ruined what, exactly?"

In lieu of a proper response, made out of words, Steve presses a hard kiss to Danny's lips. Ah, so this is how it's going to be tonight. 

As Danny returns the kiss, eager for the contact after a week apart from Steve, he can't help but smile into it. 

"What?" Steve asks between kisses, his hands pulling at where Danny's shirt is tucked into his pants. "Why are you laughing?"

"I'm smiling, not laughing," Danny points out, pulling Steve down into a few more kisses. "And I'm smiling at how soft and gooey you actually are. I _ruined_ you? Really?"

"Shut up," Steve says, his next kiss wet as he licks at Danny's lower lip. "I have half a mind to ruin _you_."

Skip the NC-17 part

Danny's brain quickly interprets that statement as extremely dirty, several exciting scenarios popping into his head and his blood rushing in his ears. "Fuck, yeah. Okay. Let's do that."

Steve gives Danny a dark look, and as soon as he so much as twitches in the direction of the stairs, Danny is racing Steve up them. After a flurry of undressing, Danny finds himself pinned under Steve's weight, his wrists held above his head and Steve's hand tight around his cock.

Danny gets a little anxious with his hands held down like that, but before he can say anything, Steve's letting them go, kissing down his chest and licking at the head of his cock. Oh, this is more like it!

Danny groans, spreading his legs to make more room for Steve, and grabbing at the rungs of Steve's headboard to steady himself. This turns out to be a good decision when Steve pushes Danny's legs further and start licking behind his balls. 

"This okay?" Steve asks, his voice breathy and distracted. 

"Yeah," Danny replies, surprising himself. He's never really thought too much about doing much of anything with his ass, but Steve seems like a man on a mission, and far be it from Danny to dissuade him. 

The feeling of Steve's hot, wet tongue against Danny's asshole is weird, but good, and it quickly becomes amazing. Sex with Steve has always been fantastic, but the way he moves his tongue makes Danny instantly understand why Catherine is in his bed so often. "Jesus!" Danny cries out, trying not to accidentally kick Steve as his whole body spasms. "Ohhh!"

"God, Danny," Steve says with a sigh, his thumb replacing his tongue for a little bit of pressure against Danny's asshole. "I wanna fuck you. D'you want that?"

Danny shoves one hand through his hair and looks up at the ceiling. In the few weeks they've been doing this, Danny has fucked Steve twice. The rest of their sex life has been blow jobs, and hand jobs, and rubbing off on each other. Danny doesn't really see himself enjoying being fucked, but Steve's thumb pressing against his entrance is quickly making him reconsider. 

"I'll give it a try," Danny says. "For you, babe."

Steve grins and kisses Danny's thigh. 

The prep is more boring than Danny would have imagined, especially given the way Steve has reacted when Danny has done this to him. Still, it feels nice, especially when Steve sucks on his cock to distract him. 

Eventually, Steve slides in, his cock slick with lube, his face blossoming with awe and relief. Danny pulls Steve close enough to kiss, close enough to share breath as Steve joins their bodies together. A spark of _something_ makes Danny gasp against Steve's mouth.

"Danny," Steve sighs, thrusting slowly, carefully. "Danny, I—"

Steve's breath hitches and he thrusts a little harder, and that _almost_ does something for Danny. Mostly, he thinks as he holds Steve's face close and kisses him, he's getting off on how tightly Steve's controlling his body, and how raw his expression is—eyes closed, mouth parted, furrow between his brows gone.

"Yeah," Danny says, tilting his hips for Steve's next thrust. "Yeah, I'm right here with you, Steven."

"Stay," Steve whispers, and Danny's not even sure he was meant to hear that, but then Steve picks up his pace, reaching down to get his hand around Danny's cock.

Now _that's_ doing it for Danny. He groans, curling his hand around the hard, straining muscles of Steve's anchoring arm. "Yeah, fuck!"

Steve shudders to a stop, his cock pulsing in Danny's ass for just a few seconds before he pulls out and ducks down. Steve swallows as much of Danny's cock as will fit in his mouth, sucking hard, and then Danny's coming too. He blacks out a little, seeing stars and shuddering as Steve gives him a few final licks.

"C'mere," Danny says, pulling at Steve until they're wrapped in each other's arms. "I love you, okay? I'm not going anywhere."

Steve lets out a long breath, the wind ruffling Danny's hair. "Yeah. Love you too, Danno."

Danny lays still, letting Steve fall asleep first. 

~*~


	7. May-June 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New steps forward in the relationships between Steve, Danny, Catherine, and Kono. Meanwhile, Jenna is clueless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is honestly one of my favorite chapters. 
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: threesome sex, and sex while pregnant. As always, the sex scenes can be skipped by clicking the link.

Skip the NC-17 part

Danny wakes up when the bed behind him shifts. When he lets one eye open and sees that it's still dark, he resolves to go back to sleep. That is, until there's warm breath on the back of his neck and playful fingers skimming over the edge of his hip and down to grasp around his cock. 

Danny groans softly as his cock fills, not _quite_ sure he wants to be dragged out of the nice sleep he had going on. Still, Danny can't say he _dislikes_ slow, sleepy sex, especially if Steve is willing to be the one putting in the work.

"There we go, sailor," says a whisper, and Danny freezes. That's not Steve's voice. 

He grabs the wrist attached to the hand around his cock and realizes it's much too small to be Steve's. So is the hand, for that matter. Scrambling to turn over, Danny asks, "Catherine?"

She makes a small, surprised noise, and Danny can just make out her silhouette when the bathroom door opens. The light from the bathroom makes Danny's eyes water, but he can see Steve standing there, just as naked as Danny.

"What?" Steve asks, and Danny realizes Catherine's hand is still on him. Also that she's naked too. 

Shoving Catherine's hand away quickly—but gently because the last thing he wants to do is hurt her—Danny cries, "I thought she was you!"

At the same moment, Catherine says to Steve, "I thought he was you!"

"You—" Steve says, looking back and forth between the two of them. He blinks, like he can't quite believe what he's seeing. 

Danny wouldn't believe it either, if it were him. "I'll go—" Danny starts to say, but Catherine's hand on Danny's shoulder stops him.

"Look," she says to Danny, nodding at Steve, who's breathing heavy and has these intense eyes. Danny's sure he's about to get killed. Catherine says to Steve, "You're turned on seeing me and Danny together."

Danny's about to tell Catherine she's crazy, but then he sees Steve's cock pointing steadily upward. 

"No, I'm—" Steve says, stumbling closer to the bed.

"Tell that to your boner, babe," Danny says, watching Steve carefully as he takes another step closer. He risks a look over at Catherine, her hair messy around her shoulders, her breasts and swollen belly round in the soft light coming from the bathroom. He feels like he should look away, preserve some of Catherine's dignity, but he can't. 

Catherine catches Danny staring, but when he tries to look away, Catherine stops him with a sure hand on Danny's jaw. Danny feels like he might still be asleep, like maybe he's dreaming when Catherine says, "Do you want to watch me kiss him?"

Danny thinks Catherine is talking to him, until Steve makes a pained noise and mutters, "Yeah." He's got one knee on the bed and one hand wrapped around his cock.

Danny gets this overwhelming wave of sympathy arousal, just watching Steve and hearing his voice. When Catherine kisses him, he feels this heady rush of power and kisses her back, watching Steve out of the corner of his eye.

"Fuck, Danno," Steve groans, watching so intently he's not even blinking. "Cath…"

Danny lets himself touch Catherine, skimming his fingers over the soft skin on her arm, her shoulder, her neck, her breast. Catherine gasps, wrenching out of the kiss and arching her back, pressing her chest and belly closer to Danny. Fuck. It's not like Danny hasn't noticed Catherine's beauty before this, but she's always been off-limits. Shoved into that section of his brain that prevents him from having stray thoughts about anyone inappropriate. 

But now, with Catherine's breast in his mouth and Steve's hand heavy on his shoulder, the urge to push his hard cock into her tight body is overwhelming. That's Steve's son in Catherine's belly, kicking Danny in the gut as Catherine presses hard against Danny, grinding her wet pussy against his thigh.

"Danny?" Steve's voice asks, mouth wet on Danny's neck, his hand cupped under Danny's ass and his cock pressed into Danny's ribs. "D'you want to?"

"Yeah," Danny admits, groaning between gritted teeth when one of them grabs his cock and strokes it, setting his whole body on fire. "Yeah, yeah. God, please. Fuck."

Steve yanks at Danny and for one heart-stopping moment, Danny thinks Steve's about to throw him out of bed. But then Danny's on his back and Catherine's sinking down onto him with a relieved cry.

Danny barely gets a chance to process how good she feels around him before Steve is kissing him, fucking Danny's mouth with his tongue. Steve's hands are all over Danny's chest and neck, and even raking up into Danny's hair as Steve turns to watch Catherine bouncing on Danny's cock.

"Fuck, Steve," Catherine says, reaching for him. Steve kisses her, too and Danny's not jealous so much as very, very turned on watching the way the muscles in Steve's jaw move when he kisses. "More!" she cries, grinding her clit against Danny's pubic bone, and fuck, that's so hot. If Danny hadn't come just a few hours ago with Steve, he'd have lost it by now.

Steve moves behind Catherine and Danny hears the click of the lube bottle opening. _He's gonna fuck her ass_ , Danny thinks, the muscles of his own ass clenching at the memory of being fucked. But then Steve's wet fingers stroke around the base of Danny's cock, and then up into Catherine's pussy. 

"Oh, fuck," Catherine says, leaning back against Steve as he kneels behind her. "Don't stop."

"I wanna…" Steve mutters, more of his fingers sliding up alongside Danny's cock inside Catherine. "Cath. At the same time? Can I?"

"Fuck, yes," she groans, dropping down, her hands on Danny's shoulders keeping some room for her belly. 

Danny wishes she was close enough to kiss, but he settles for stroking her bottom lip gently with his thumb. Catherine sucks his thumb into her mouth, licking and sucking at it and Danny sees stars. He groans loudly, digging his heels into the mattress for better leverage. 

Steve's fingers pull back, replaced by a slow, blunt pressure against Danny's cock. Catherine cries out loudly, letting go of Danny's thumb and dropping her head. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," she mutters, her nails digging into Danny's shoulders. "Steve!"

The pressure—Steve's cock, Danny realizes—backs off. "Too much?"

"No, no, no, don't stop!" Catherine cries, one hand reaching back for Steve. 

Steve pushes back in and the sensation of his cock sliding against Danny's, along with the extra pressure around him is almost too much to bear. "Fuck!" Danny cries, biting his lip, his hips thrusting up reflexively. "Steve, god!"

Steve pulls back and thrusts again, and then again. Danny feels like he's going out of his mind. Catherine's crying out, "Oh, God! Yes! Ah! Fuck!"

"Cath," Steve mutters, hooking his chin over Catherine's shoulder. He puts his hand over Danny's on Catherine's hip. "Danny!"

Danny can't hold on. He can't breathe. He's gonna die. Or maybe he's just gonna come. He reaches down as best he can around Catherine's belly and finds her clit, desperately rubbing at it. "Come on, baby," Danny says, curling up as best he can to get Catherine's nipple into his mouth. 

A few more passes of his finger over her clit and his tongue against her nipple and Catherine cries out. Her entire belly goes rigid against Danny's, and she pulls him away from her breast with a rough hand in his hair.

The pain in his scalp is just enough to send Danny over the edge. He groans, collapsing back against the bed and grabbing Catherine by the hips, grinding up into her as his cock pumps desperately against Steve's.

"Jesus," Steve sighs, thrusting a few more times against Danny's oversensitive cock until he's coming too, holding his breath and squeezing his eyes tightly shut. Steve presses his mouth against Catherine's shoulder and rocks his hips a few more times. Steve's pulsing cock slides against Danny's softening one, through the mess they both made inside Catherine.

"Fuck, okay," Catherine says, pushing her hair back with one hand. "Enough."

Danny tilts his hips so he slides out of Catherine, and helps her climb down from on top of him. She ends up laying on her side, facing Danny, Steve behind her. Danny feels weird, being so far away from Steve. To break the tension, he clears his throat and says, "Well. That was, uh—"

"Yeah," Steve says with a chuckle, blindly reaching over Catherine to set his fingertips on Danny's arm. 

"Mmmm," Catherine says, smiling as she rubs her face against Danny's shoulder. "I think I just found a new favorite activity."

Steve laughs and Danny finds himself smiling. This should be weird, shouldn't it? He turns toward Catherine, placing his hand over her belly. His hand gets kicked almost immediately, making Danny laugh in surprise.

Eyes still closed, Catherine says, "I think he likes you, Danny."

Feeling a sudden rush of affection for Catherine, Danny can't help but tuck her hair back behind her ear and kiss her lips. They're soft, like she's almost asleep, and Danny lets his eyes close as well. He'll worry about what the hell this means in the morning. 

As he's drifting off, the baby kicks Danny where his side is pressed against Catherine's belly, and it reminds him of Grace. 

~*~

"You look distracted," Kono says as she sits down across from Catherine, nodding past her at the ASEP guard sitting behind her. Catherine doesn't see another guard following Kono around, but if she ducked away from work at Five-0, that could explain it. Working at the palace, Kono's already guaranteed some security, and having Steve, Danny, and Chin all around and armed most of the time probably means ASEP doesn't waste money protecting Kono they way they do Catherine.

Catherine grins at Kono's question, though she feels her smile fall when she notices Jenna Kaye working her way through the restaurant toward them. _She_ doesn't have a bodyguard either. Maybe it's too soon and they haven't assigned anyone to her yet. Nodding toward Jenna, Catherine asks, "Did you invite her?"

Kono catches sight of Jenna and turns back to Catherine with wide eyes. "No. I mean, I told Steve I was meeting you for lunch, and he asked where…"

Catherine huffs and shoves down her annoyance, putting on a polite smile. "Jenna. Hello."

Jenna sits down in the chair on Catherine's right. "Hey! I was just sitting around, not doing much. When I heard you guys were having lunch, I thought it sounded fun, and here I am!"

Supposing this woman will probably be a part of her life for the next four and a half years, at least, Catherine sighs and decides to try to make nice with her. "Welcome," she says, ignoring Kono's kick to her foot under the table. "This is one of my favorite restaurants in Honolulu."

"Awesome," Jenna replies, taking one of the menus from the table and opening it.

Kono gives Jenna a side-long glance before turning her attention back to Catherine. "So, _anyway_ , you were going to tell me why you looked so distracted."

Biting her lip, Catherine rubs her belly over where the baby has been kicking lately. She glances over at Jenna, unsure this conversation is suited for her ears. Of course, when Catherine asked Steve this morning how much Jenna knew, he admitted she'd found out about him and Danny the night before. Plus, Catherine has been dying to talk to Kono all morning, so she decides to just out with the story.

"So, I woke up in the middle of the night," Catherine begins, "because I had to pee."

"As you do," Kono says with a nod, reaching for her water glass.

"And I somehow _forgot_ that Danny was there, and I don't know. I felt like some company." Catherine shrugs, taking a sip of her own water. She's been extremely thirsty lately.

Kono's eyes go wide again. "Oh, no. What did you do?"

Catherine notices Jenna watching her over the menu in her hands, but this story is too good to just leave hanging. With a little bit of a chuckle, Catherine says, "When I got up to Steve's room, there was only one person in his bed, so naturally, I assumed it was Steve."

"Oh, god!" Kono covers her mouth with her hand. "It was Danny, wasn't it?"

Pressing her lips together, Catherine nods. "Yup." "What happened?" Jenna asks, setting her menu down, giving up the pretense of not listening to the story.

"Did Steve find out?" Kono asked. "Was he mad? He seemed okay at work this morning."

"Oh, Steve found out. But he wasn't mad." Shrugging and taking another sip of her water, Catherine says, "I may have slept with both of them."

"At the same time?" Kono asks, scandalized.

Catherine nods again.

"I didn't…" Jenna frowns down at her menu. "I didn't know we could do that."

"God, I hate you," Kono says with a pout, and Catherine can tell she doesn't really mean it. "You've got Steve _and_ Danny? The other day, I was so hormone-rattled I almost kissed Charlie Fong!"

"Who's Charlie Fong?" Jenna asks.

Ignoring Jenna's question, Catherine gasps. "You _what_?"

"I said _almost_ ," Kono insists. "I know, I know. Intimate contact with anyone other than your assigned patriarch is forbidden. Doesn't mean I wasn't tempted."

"But, Catherine." Jenna turns in her seat a little, facing Catherine and keeping her voice low. "Aren't you afraid of breaking the rules? Being with Danny? _Intimately_ "

"What could possibly happen?" Catherine counters. She points to her belly. "I'm already pregnant. Danny was cleared to sleep with Steve, which means he doesn't have anything infectious. As long as ASEP gets a healthy baby, that's all they care about."

"That...is true," Kono says, a thoughtful look on her face. Leaning forward with a little grin, she asks, "So, how was it?"

"Amazing," Catherine replies, shifting in her chair, still able to feel how stretched out she'd been having them both inside her at the same time. "Definitely something I want to do again."

"But how does that even…" Jenna says softly, her cheeks adorably red. She hides behind her menu again, muttering, "Nevermind."

Kono tilts her head and admits, "I've never really thought of Danny that way."

"Never?" Catherine watches Kono's face. "You've never noticed his shoulders? Or his ass?"

Jenna clears her throat, which makes Kono laugh.

"Okay, I get it." Resting her chin on her hand, Kono sighs. "I don't know. I'm kind of thinking I need to talk to Steve, see if we can come up with some sort of solution. It's kind of his responsibility, isn't it?"

"Totally," Catherine says, though some of the arguments against ASEP, like those about consent, stick out in the back of her mind vaguely before disappearing. "You should talk to him."

Kono gives Catherine a look, like she's not quite sure she believes she's allowed. Though she's been in ASEP for almost nine months, it seems like Kono's still not used to the idea of sharing. 

Maybe if Steve and Danny do to Kono what they did to Catherine last night, she'll change her views on sharing very quickly.

~*~

"Hey," Chin says, knocking as he walks into Steve's office. "I heard back from one of my contacts in Washington."

Steve raises his eyebrows and leans back in his chair. "Why do I have a feeling your contacts in Washington are better than mine? I'm the one who went to Annapolis."

"True," Chin says, "but you don't have a cousin who moved to D.C. to work for Senator Akaka."

Steve laughs. "Why is it always down to cousins with you?"

"Consequence of a large family," Chin says with a shrug, handing Steve the folder with the printed-out intel. "There was congressional oversight on the CIA op Jenna and her fiancé were involved in. Not much is known, at least to Senator Akaka's office, about what exactly happened, but they did find out something interesting." Chin points to the relevant section of the page, noticing exactly when Steve connects the dots.

"The Dragon was involved?" Steve asks, his eyes zipping back and forth as he reads the page.

"Yeah. As best they can work out, the op was an ambush, fed by false information and agents too eager to catch their quarry. They didn't get a second source for the intel before approving the op."

"You mean _Jenna_ didn't get a second source to confirm it," Steve replies, reading for a few more seconds. "There's no way her presence here, on Oahu, in my house, is a coincidence. She heard we're looking for The Dragon, and figured out how to get herself close to the investigation."

"By getting herself into a five-year contract to have your babies," Chin points out. He can't help being skeptical of the entire ASEP operation, much less people willingly entering into it. He supposes everyone has their reasons. Kono's reason was half a million dollars for her family's health. Jenna's reason is what? Revenge?

"She could always buy out of her contract when she gets what she's looking for," Steve points out.

"I ran her financials," Chin replies, taking back the folder when Steve hands it to him. "She doesn't have that kind of money."

Steve sighs. "That means she's only thinking in the short term, which could make her dangerous."

"Or, she might know enough to help us get through the blocks we've been running into. If the governor doesn't know why she's really here…"

Steve nods, standing up and clapping Chin on the shoulder as he passes. "Then Jenna could be our ace in the hole."

Chin wishes Steve would explain where he's going when he just walks off like that. Then again, given Steve's life, and his family obligations, Chin's not sure he wants to know after all.

~*~

Jenna had hoped that by going to lunch with Steve's women, she might get a better idea of where in the house Steve might be hiding the evidence concerning The Dragon. Unfortunately, all Catherine and Kono talked about was sex, being pregnant, and the trouble Catherine was having lately being taken seriously in her work. Apparently this was a long-standing problem with the Navy, and hearing about it made Jenna's blood boil, but it wasn't part of her current mission, so she couldn't focus on it now.

It had been relatively easy to get the guard at the front gate to give Jenna the alarm code to Steve's house the day before. She simply needed to mention that, having just moved in, she didn't have any groceries in the little cabin they'd given to her. The private had automatically shown her into Steve's house, where groceries had just been delivered, according to him.

She hadn't found anything during her first search, though admittedly she hadn't had much time before Kono had come home and interrupted her. Today, with everyone at work, Jenna hopes to be able to search through the place at her leisure.

The kitchen holds nothing more extraordinary than some very nice coffee and a can of oatmeal that is actually a cache of travelers checks and an ammo clip. Jenna shakes her head and sniffs, putting the canister exactly back where she found it. Josh was the same way, ready for anything. Well, almost anything.

The upstairs bathroom is also unremarkable, except that there are three toothbrushes in the cup next to the sink—blue, green, and red. Jenna thinks she could probably guess who belongs to each one. The bed in the room next door has been made (Josh always used to do that too, Jenna would rather just leave the covers where they end up). There's nothing unusual under the bed, or in any of the dresser drawers. There's a lock box for a gun in the nightstand, along with some personal items that make Jenna close the drawer quickly when she realizes what they're for.

There's another room next to the bedroom, which is filled with dusty boxes. None of them appear to have been disturbed recently, so Jenna decides her time is better spent by moving on.

Back downstairs, Jenna ends up in the office again. This seems like the most logical place to keep work-related things, but her first cursory search through the desk came up empty. The only thing that seems out of place is a dirty, red toolbox. Expecting only tools, and maybe the smell of old machine oil, Jenna pops open the lid.

There, in the top tool tray, is an old, ornate key, and a stack of postcards. Jenna recognizes these things from the pictures that came up when Jenna searched for anything coming out of Oahu. They'd been attached to a federal inquiry about the influence of the Yakuza in Hawaii and California. While the Yakuza had not been officially linked to Wo Fat by anyone but Jenna, the Dragon alias was well known in those circles. 

Jenna wonders if anyone else, besides her and the man himself, knows Wo Fat and The Dragon are one in the same. Maybe a few of his underlings. Definitely not Five-0, based on what Jenna's been able to glean from the NSA's tap into Governor Jameson's communications with her task force.

Though the evidence in the red toolbox is intriguing, and definitely points toward a few incidents that might be connected to one another, there's nothing to indicate Jenna can link any of them back to Wo Fat. She closes the box in frustration, putting it back where she found it, and decides to take a walk.

It's late afternoon, so the air is hot and sticky, especially since the high walls around the McGarrett compound seem to block most of the wind she might otherwise be feeling, based on the movement of the trees that she can see over the walls. 

Walking around the compound, it's easy to see that the front half is the most used. The driveway from the gate to the garage has been kept clear of leaf litter, as have the covered walkways between Steve's house and the three small cabins near it. However, the walkways heading back to the bigger buildings beyond the small cabins are littered with dried leaves, and some of them are overgrown with weeds. 

Jenna has seen an explanation for all of these buildings in her research, but it's different, seeing them with her own two eyes. There's the central school building, with a little playground behind it that looks like it was built when Jenna was a child. She wonders if they'll replace it for Steve's kids. The empty field beyond the playground is probably meant to be mowed down to a lawn for the kids to run around on.

There are three bigger houses connected to the school building, which Jenna recognizes as those meant to house the separate mothers and their children. Forming a ring around the open field are houses somewhat in between the size of Jenna's cabin, and the sizes of the larger houses. Those are the ones meant for the caregivers, Jenna realizes. 

Right now the complex is quiet, but in a few years, it's going to be buzzing with activity. Steve's kids are going to need people to watch them all day and all night. Sometimes that's their mother, but even in the 70s, when this complex was built, ASEP realized that the mothers would be more likely to sign up if it didn't mean signing their whole life away. Steve's mother, for instance, left when Steve was very young. ASEP would've filled that gap with an employee of some sort—and a live-in employee had to be more efficient than one who lived outside the walls, when security was such an issue.

It makes the little apartment Jenna and her mother had in Georgetown pale in comparison.

As she's walking back, Jenna hears the gate open, and a vehicle pull into the complex. She heads toward the garage, happy to see that it's Steve home first. She knows if she's going to get Steve's help finding Wo Fat, she's going to need him to like her. It can't be that hard, right? He likes both Catherine and Danny. He likes Kono, too. Those are three very different people, which means Steve's ability to like people is probably fairly broad.

Jenna just has to gain his trust. She can do that. After all, Jenna knows one of Steve's secrets. She can show him how well she can keep that secret, and that should earn his trust, right?

As long as she doesn't ruin it with her runaway mouth like always.

Catching up with Steve, Jenna says, "Hey! How was your day?"

A scary-looking frown on his face, Steve says, "Come with me. I need to talk to you."

Suddenly nervous, Jenna gulps and follows Steve into his house. She's _fairly_ certain she's not going to be murdered, but her reptile brain is telling her it's a distinct possibility.

"What's up?" she says carefully, watching as Steve locks the front door. Okay, maybe murder is a little more likely now.

"The sooner we get this over with, the better," Steve says, sitting down on the couch, his legs spread in some sort of power stance, his hands resting on his thighs. He looks at Jenna expectantly.

Now, see? This is what Jenna was picturing when it came to being in an ASEP house. Kono had tried to tell her that Steve was different, that he wasn't one for relationship-free sex, but Jenna never should have believed her. Wanting to clarify what Steve expects her to do, Jenna asks, "The sooner we get what over with?"

"The reason you came here," Steve says, leaning back further into the couch and making a "go on" gesture with one hand. "Come on! Let's get into it!"

"You don't have to be so impatient," Jenna snaps, before closing her eyes and calming herself. This is no big deal. If this is the price Jenna has to pay in order to get the information she needs, then she's just going to have to pay it. 

Now that her decision has been made, she goes after it, full-force. Jenna steps closer to Steve, straddling his legs at the same time she rips her shirt off over her head. It had been too hot for a bra, so Jenna is completely topless as she leans forward, aiming to put a kiss on Steve's mouth.

Steve stops her with warm hands on her shoulders, and very wide eyes. "What are you doing?" he asks.

"Are we not supposed to kiss?" Jenna asks, feeling her cheeks go hot. "Sorry, I just assumed it would make this better if we did, but if you _don't_ want to or something, that would be okay."

"No," Steve says, his eyes darting down for half a second before he closes them and slaps a hand over them. He cries, "I meant, what are you doing taking your shirt off?"

Confused, Jenna sits back, watching what she can see of Steve's face around his hand. "You said we should do what I came here for. I thought it might work better if we were naked."

"I didn't mean _sex_ ," Steve insists, taking his hand away from his eyes and keeping his gaze very resolutely above Jenna's chin. "I meant we should talk about your investigation into a man called The Dragon. That's why you're really here, isn't it?"

Jenna's heart feels like it stops beating, her chest caving in under the weight of the fact that Steve _knows_. Hands trembling and knees wobbling, Jenna climbs off of Steve and retrieves her shirt from the floor. She focuses on breathing, and then on getting her shirt back over her head. 

Once that's accomplished, she sits in the chair next to the couch and clasps her hands together. "How did you find out?" she asks softly.

"I have friends," Steve says, leaning forward with one forearm resting against his knee. 

Feeling the tears form in her eyes, Jenna looks up, blinking them away. She nods and asks, "So, how much do you know?"

"I know The Dragon fed you some misinformation. He led your people into a trap."

Jenna nods, trying not to think to hard about that day. "Do you know his name?"

"The Dragon?" Steve asks, shaking his head. "No, all we've been able to find out is the alias, some of the deals he's brokered. That's it."

Sniffling because of the way her nose is dripping, Jenna sighs. "His name is Wo Fat," she admits. "He was trained as a member of the Chinese intelligence community, where he made some big waves before disappearing. He reappeared a few years later as a big player in the illegal arms trade, under a new name."

"The Dragon," Steve says with a serious nod. "How many people know his real name?"

"Not many," Jenna says. "Some of his people, I'd assume. Myself and my superiors. I'm the one who connected The Dragon's face to a name."

"When was this?" Steve asks. "None of the intel we've been able to gather about The Dragon ever mentions this name. Wo Fat."

"We were keeping the discovery quiet." Jenna shifts in her seat, the leather chair creaking underneath her. "He conducts legitimate business deals under his real name, and we didn't want to scare him into hiding before we had the chance to capture him."

Steve takes a loud breath and sits back in the couch. His eyes on Jenna, he brings a hand to his mouth and sits silently for a long moment. Eventually, Steve points out, "Except you didn't capture him. And then he came to Oahu. Which is why you're here."

"They took me off the case," Jenna admits, biting her lip. "This was the only way to get close to the investigation again."

It takes Steve a long moment to respond, but when he does, he says, "The Dragon financed the arms dealers who killed my brother. After Freddie died, the brass took me out of the field. This investigation is the only way I have left to get him some kind of justice."

"I can help!" Jenna scoots forward in her seat. "There's no one who knows more about Wo Fat than I do."

With a nod, Steve says, "If we're going to work together, I need to know I can trust you. Are you done lying about why you're here?"

"Absolutely," Jenna says, without hesitation. "I don't know if you noticed, but lying isn't exactly my strong suit."

Steve smiles in a way that makes Jenna's heart clench, because it reminds her so much of Josh. "Yeah. I noticed."

~*~

Danny gets back from HPD with a few files relevant to the case Five-0 is working on today, and heads straight for his office. The sight of a foot peeking out from behind his desk almost gives him a heart attack, until he rounds the desk and sees Kono, sitting there on the floor. She has a pillow from the couch under her butt, and her back propped up against the drawers of Danny's desk.

"What are you doing back here?" he asks, setting the HPD files on his desk and sitting down on the floor next to her.

"Hiding," Kono replies, tapping away at the keys of her laptop.

"From what?" Danny readjusts himself on the floor, kind of wishing he had a pillow to sit on, too.

Kono's gaze slides sideways over to Danny and she gives him a long-suffering look. "Charlie Fong is on his way. Here. To this office."

"Crime lab Charlie Fong?" Danny asks, wondering why in the world Kono would need to hide from such a gentle-seeming guy. "Did he say something to you?"

"He complimented my smile." Kono makes a pained noise, setting her laptop aside and dropping her face into her hands. 

Danny tries not to laugh, but an awkward huff escapes him. "So, you're hiding, because Fong is too nice?"

"I'm hiding because I want to _jump_ him," Kono insists. "And he keeps on refusing to give me reasons not to."

"Ah." Danny thinks he understands. "Got some urges built up, there? Hormones?"

Kono pouts. "Yes. So many hormones."

"But unleashing them on Fong would be a breach of your ASEP contract," Danny continues. 

"If anyone found out, I'd be in so much trouble," Kono insists. "I'd be completely screwed, and not in the good way." She sighs hopelessly. "And I know I should just go to Steve and tell him what's going on, but he's got Catherine, and you, and now Jenna…"

"Plus, he's your _boss_ ," Danny adds before he can help himself. 

"He's your boss, too," Kono points out, with a snort. She gives Danny a speculative look and then asks, "How do you ask Steve for some, uh, attention?"

Danny winces, because usually it's Steve asking Danny if he'll spend time at Steve's place. He hasn't had to go looking for attention from Steve. Not yet, anyway. Danny knows that's going to change once the babies arrive. Maybe knowing that his time with Steve could be limited sooner rather than later, Danny's been a little selfish. 

Maybe it's time Danny was a little less selfish, huh?

"You want I should talk to him?" Danny asks, pulling his knees up and resting his arms on them as he looks over at Kono.

"No," Kono cries immediately. Her face falls and she looks away. Quietly, she says, "Maybe. I don't know."

With a smile for her, Danny leans closer, knocking his shoulder into Kono's. "I'll do it. Don't think I won't."

"You'd go out of your way to convince your boyfriend to sleep with me?" Kono rolls her eyes. "Yeah, I don't think you'd actually do that."

Taking a look around his desk, Danny sees Steve over in his office, a puzzled look on his face as he reads some report. Addressing Kono, he asks, "Wanna bet?"

Kono's eyes widen. "Danny?" she asks, a warning in her voice. 

While he might be more circumspect and more reasonable than Steve, Danny finds himself itching to rise to the challenge anyway. He grins at Kono and stands up, dodging when she lunges for him. "You'll thank me later!" he calls over his shoulder as he leaves his office, feeling only a little guilty as Kono gets to her feet less-than-gracefully.

Steve's office is just a few steps away, and he looks up when Danny bursts in. "I need to talk to you," he says, leaning against the door so it can't be opened. The thump of Kono pushing on the door makes Danny widen his stance to get better leverage on keeping it closed.

"About what?" Steve asks, his eyes over Danny's shoulder on where Kono's pushing at the glass door.

"You, my friend, have been shirking on your duties," Danny says, grunting when Kono gives an exceptionally hard push. "And I have to admit, I've been complicit in this crime, and for that, I apologize. But, no more!"

"What crime?" Steve asks, standing up from behind his desk. Danny notices the way Steve's eyes track off to Danny's left, and that alerts him to the play Kono is trying to make for the other door around the corner. "Danny?"

It's childish and silly, and Danny knows this, but he still hurries over to the other door and puts his body in front of it before Kono can get there. "Kono needs to get laid!"

A choking noise draws Danny's attention over to the door he just vacated, where Chin is now standing. "You couldn't save this for at home?" 

Kono pushes into the room, past Chin, her cheeks darker than normal. "Danny, I swear to god, I'm gonna kill you!"

Danny realizes in that moment what a colossal mistake he's made, and is grateful when Steve steps in front of Danny, holding his hands out to placate Kono. "Alright!" Steve cries in what Danny thinks of as his navy voice. "You." Steve points to Chin. "Stay here. Call me if anything happens."

Chin nods and takes half a step out the door, like he really wants to escape, but isn't quite sure it's time yet.

"You," Steve points to Kono, before turning toward Danny, "and _you_! The three of us are going for coffee, and we're going to discuss this, like adults!"

"Actually discussing something?" Danny asks, grabbing onto Steve's arm in surprise. "You? What the hell is going on? Have you had a stroke? Should we get you to the hospital?"

Kono laughs a little, which makes Steve's brow furrow intensify.

"I swear to god, Daniel," Steve says, stalking from the room, and somehow leaving the clear intention that Danny and Kono are meant to follow. Danny has no idea how the hell Steve does it without even looking back, but he finds himself falling in line behind Kono, the both of them following Steve out the door.

"You got us in trouble," Kono hisses at Danny, poking him in the ribs.

Danny dodges another poke and replies, "You were hiding in _my_ office. What was I supposed to do? Let you keep suffering in silence?"

"Yes!"

Once outside the palace, Steve leads them down a few blocks and over, to Max  & Lucy's, the little coffee house that's a regular stop on their way to work. The owners have got the lunch food out, but Steve brusquely orders two black coffees, and another that's decaf. 

Then he points to Danny and says, "He'll pay."

Danny rolls his eyes and pulls out his wallet. "We'll need some creamer and a bottle of water, too," he tells the cashier, handing her some cash. When he turns around, Steve is back outside, sitting on the picnic table out there, and Kono's hesitating in the doorway.

"I've got this, babe," Danny assures Kono, handing her the bottle of water and giving her an encouraging nod.

The cashier forgoes the espresso machine and grabs the drip pot of coffee, filling two cups as she says, "Your friends don't seem too happy today, Ipo."

As she switches to the other pot for the third cup, Danny gives her a polite smile. "We'll work it out. Thanks." He drops his change from the purchase into the tip jar next to the register.

Snapping lids onto the cups and fitting them into a cardboard carrier, she says, "Stress isn't good for the baby, you know."

"Oh, I know," Danny tells her, watching as she loads up the empty carrier cup with creamer and sugar. "I heard it all the time from my ex-wife when she was pregnant."

"And now a new one on the way?" she asks, handing over the container. "Good for you!"

"Oh, I'm not the father," Danny insists with a nod out toward Kono, though he's sure the woman behind the counter doesn't care one way or the other. "I'm just a, um, friend." 

Danny honestly doesn't have any other way to describe his relationship to Kono's baby. What is he going to say? He's not the dad, but he's in love with the guy? That Danny might as well be one of Steve's ASEP girls— just one who can't get pregnant?

He finds Steve and Kono outside, sitting across the table from one another, both staring off into the distance. He debates for half a second which side of the table he wants to sit on, and decides to go with Kono's side. "Okay," Danny says, setting the decaf cup in front of Kono, and one of the regular coffees in front of Steve. "We have ourselves a situation."

"Yeah, I guess," Kono says, reaching for the sugar packets. 

"You guess?" Danny scoffs and grabs a couple of the creamers before Steve can take them all. "You were hiding in my office. For one, you are not the type of woman to hide from anything. And for two, I need my office. That's where I do my work. It's definitely a situation."

Steve makes a soft noise, and when Danny looks over, he sees Steve hiding a tiny smile behind his coffee cup. Oh, now he smiles, when a minute ago it looked like he wanted to commit murder? Danny glares at Steve in retaliation. 

"What are we going to do about this situation?" Kono asks, prompting Danny to tear his eyes away from Steve so he can look at her. 

"I…" Steve says, spreading his hands and shrugging. "What would you like to do about it?"

Kono shrugs. "I'm not even sure it's the, you know, _sex_ that I miss, or if it's just being close to someone."

Steve gives Danny a significant look as he says, "Yeah, I get that." He reaches across the table, setting his hand out like he wants Kono to take it. "I shouldn't have let it get this bad," Steve admits. "I guess I assumed you were tough enough to take care of yourself." 

"Taking care of yourself only gets you so far," Kono says, almost under her breath. She hesitates for a second before putting her hand in Steve's. 

The mood between them is heavy, and Danny's starting to feel like a third wheel, which makes his skin itch and his limbs restless. Before he can think better of it, he says, "Ain't that the truth…"

Steve gives Danny an insulted noise. "Hey, I've been taking good care of you _and_ Catherine, so I don't want to hear it." There's a hint of a smile at the edge of Steve's lips again, so Danny can be sure Steve's just doing his banter-as-flirting thing. 

"Occasionally at the same time," Kono says, taking her hand back and grinning as she lifts her coffee to her lips. She takes a sip and adds, "Or so I hear."

As soon as Danny gets Kono's meaning, he covers his burning face briefly and mutters, "Oh, Jesus. Catherine told you?"

"What did Catherine tell you?" Steve asks, the outer edges of his ears bright red. 

"Hey, I'm not gonna judge!" Kono winces at her coffee and pushes it away, going for the bottle of water. "I mean, our relationships are already weird. Whatever you guys want to do in private is—"

"Yeah, okay," Steve says, his whole neck red at this point. "Can we get back to the topic at hand?"

Danny wonders how flustered Steve will get when provoked. "Which is what, exactly? Getting Kono laid?"

Kono punches Danny in the arm. "You're always so classy."

"I try," Danny replies with a grin. Out of the corner of his eye, Danny notices Steve's expression. "Oh, no."

"So, I'm thinking…" Steve says, taking a sip of coffee. 

"Nothing good," Kono says, and Danny nods in agreement. 

"What are you thinking?" Danny asks. 

"I'm thinking that there's time I can't devote to either one of you. Like, when I'm with Catherine, or with Jenna…"

"So?" Danny asks, not liking where this conversation is headed. 

"So maybe there's an easy solution," Steve says, smirking as he looks back and forth between Danny and Kono. "The two of you could…"

It only takes Danny a second to come to the conclusion that the rest of that sentence is meant to end with " _have sex_ ". "What?" Kono cries, her eyes wide as she looks over at Danny.

"I'm gonna have to reiterate that 'what'. Steven!" Danny cries.

"I mean, not that I have anything against you, Danny," Kono adds quickly. She's so thoughtful of his feelings, unlike _some people_. "But seriously?"

"While I firmly believe that you are lovely and beautiful, and any man should be so lucky," Danny assures Kono, "this is not a thing I signed up for. This is a thing _you_ signed up for, Steve! You can't just _delegate_ your sexual responsibilities like that."

Steve shrugs. "I'm not saying it's the best solution. Just that maybe it's an easy one."

Danny takes a hard look at Steve, cataloging his facial expression. He's looking down, like he's embarrassed, but his shoulders are square and he keeps sneaking glances up at Danny and Kono. 

Steve's real motivation dawns on Danny so suddenly, it feels like getting punched in the gut. "Oh, my god!"

"What?" Kono asks, clearly unable to read Steve's face like Danny can.

"Seriously?" Danny asks Steve, almost relieved when Steve finally looks at him. 

Steve gives Danny a long, slow blink that he must think constitutes an actual response. 

"You are touched in the head, my friend. I can't believe I'm attracted to someone with such weird…" Danny waves his hand around as he tries to think of the appropriate word. Eventually he decides on, "Kinks."

"It's not that weird," Steve says with a frown. "And if you don't want to do it, no one said you had to."

"Good," Danny replies. 

"Great," Steve says. 

"You two have lost me," Kono breaks in, holding up a hand when Steve parts his lips like he's about to start speaking. "What's not that weird? What does Steve want us to do?"

Steve slaps his hands down on the table and pushes himself to his feet. "Okay. Good talk. I'm going back to work now." With that, he picks up his coffee, turns on his heel, and leaves.

As soon as Steve is out of earshot, Kono asks, "Should I be worried? I'm not really comfortable with weird sex stuff."

"No," Danny assures Kono with a chuckle. "It's just he likes watching, I think. Like, the opposite of getting jealous."

"Oh," Kono says, her brow furrowing. She gives Danny a look. "What about you? Do you get jealous when Steve has to be with other people?"

Danny sighs and takes a long sip of his coffee. "Yeah," he admits. 

Kono scoots closer to Danny, wrapping her arm around his and leaning her head on his shoulder. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

It takes Danny a few breaths to organize his thoughts well enough to reply. "I have to be, so I am."

Squeezing Danny's arm and shaking it a little, Kono says, "Danny…"

Putting on an easy smile for her, Danny says, "I'm fine, babe. I promise." He stands and offers her his hand. "C'mon. Let's head back. Unless you want me to call Chin, make sure Fong has already come and gone?"

Kono looks up at Danny, pressing her tongue between her lips and blinking at him for a few silent seconds.

Danny rolls his eyes, but pulls his phone out of his pocket.

~*~

"Are you sure you don't want me to head home?" Danny asks as he helps Steve do the dishes from family dinner. "Since Kono's staying and all."

"You don't have Grace tonight," Steve points out, nudging Danny's shoulder with his arm. "You always stay over when you don't have Grace." 

Danny scoffs. "I don't even know why I still _have_ an apartment. Although, it's not like I can bring Grace here."

"You could," Steve insists, handing Danny a plate to rinse and dry. "Technically, one of the houses in the back is yours. It's got a room for Grace and everything." 

"Yeah," Danny says, taking the plate. "But that means accepting the fact that I'm basically your kept man."

Letting that comment roll off his back like it doesn't exist, Steve leans over and nibbles on Danny's neck. "But you're so good at being my kept man," Steve murmurs. 

"Steven…" Danny's voice is somewhere between irritated and turned on, exactly where Steve likes him to be. Swatting Steve away, Danny continues, "I know this date of yours is important to Kono. I just don't want to get in the way."

Steve pulls his hands out of the soapy water and dries them quickly before gently turning Danny to face him. He sets his forehead against Danny's and says, "I want you here. You won't be in the way." He gives Danny a kiss that he hopes is reassuring. "Besides, we're just watching a movie. It's not a big deal."

"And after the movie?" Danny asks, wrapping his arms around Steve.

"I will _absolutely_ make it worth your while to stay over," Steve promises, ideas about how to do so coalescing in his mind and making his cock twitch where it's pressed to Danny's crotch.

A sly smile crosses Danny's face. "You always have the best bribes," he says, giving Steve's ass a quick pat. "It's unfair."

"I play to win," Steve insists, grinning when Danny snorts at him and pulls away. 

"Just for that, buddy, Kono and I are picking out the movie, and you'll just have to deal." Danny saunters from the room and Steve can't quite help himself from grinning as he finishes up the dishes. 

By the time Steve's done that, made a bag of microwave popcorn, poured it into a bowl, and made his way out to the living room, Danny and Kono are settled on the couch, watching previews. Steve doesn't fail to notice the way Danny's sitting on one end of the couch and Kono's on the other, leaving either the spot in the middle, or the armchair for Steve. 

Since the whole point of this is to help Kono feel more…appreciated, or whatever, Steve sits in the middle of the couch. "What are we watching?"

"The new Tron movie," Kono says, taking the bowl of popcorn from Steve and shoving a big handful into her mouth, even though they _just_ finished eating dinner. 

Steve makes a face, because he's pretty sure he's not going to like this movie. He shouldn't have let Danny and Kono choose, but it's probably too late to get them to change their minds, isn't it?

Fine. It's just a couple hours of his life. He can do this.

Twenty minutes into the movie, Steve comes to the realization that he can't do this. "This is so dumb," he says as Danny reaches over him for the popcorn. "People could never become computer algorithms like that! Especially with that level of technology. I mean, just the number of neurons in the human brain—"

"That's why it's called _fiction_ ," Danny says, leaning closer to Steve. "Now, hush."

Steve frowns, but manages to get his arm around Danny and pull him closer, which is nice. Steve's not really paying attention to the movie, instead focusing on the little curl of hair at the base of Danny's neck. After a few minutes, Danny gives Steve a side-eyed look and moves Steve's hand from the back of his neck.

The pout Steve gives Danny isn't enough to get Danny to let him put that arm back around his shoulders. Instead, Danny nods over at Kono, giving Steve's hand a light shove in her direction. When he leans away and crosses his arms, Steve knows Danny's serious.

Suppressing the sigh he wants to give, Steve readjusts himself and puts his arm on the back of the couch, over Kono's shoulders. When she notices, Kono gives Steve a smile and leans into him. Steve wraps his arm around her and gives her a little bit of a squeeze. Kono leans in even closer, resting her head against Steve's shoulder.

Steve gives Danny a look, raising his eyebrows like he's saying, _Are you happy now_?

Danny rolls his eyes and goes back to watching the movie.

It doesn't take Steve long to get bored. The movie is dumb, and Steve can't quite figure out what's going on. Normally, at this point, he would try to make out with his viewing partner. Of course, that viewing partner has always been either Catherine or Danny, just one of them and Steve. Maybe Steve should have let Danny go home. Keeping him here for this was probably selfish, wasn't it?

Tonight is supposed to be about Kono. If Steve's going to make out with anyone during this trainwreck of a movie, it should be her, right? Steve can't make a move on her in front of Danny. Or can he? After all, it's Danny pushing Steve toward Kono. Maybe he should see exactly what he's pushing Steve to do. It'll certainly teach him for causing a scene in Steve's office.

Steve's got to approach this strategically, though. Start off slow. Lifting the arm he's got around Kono's shoulder, Steve runs his hand through Kono's hair. She hums, settling even closer to Steve. It's almost too easy to brush Kono's hair away from her neck, exposing it. Steve starts with a subtle massage of the muscles at the join of Kono's neck and shoulder, before letting his fingers drift up along the side of her neck, to behind her ear.

Kono shudders, but she doesn't pull away. Instead, she puts her hand on Steve's thigh, all the while not looking up at him. With Kono leaning close and her hand on his thigh, Steve can't help but get a little turned on. He remembers how it felt to run his hands over her bare skin, and how it felt to kiss her as she sank down onto his cock. 

Steve's jeans feel much too tight, and he lets himself reach for Kono with his free hand. Brushing the backs of his fingers over Kono's cheek, Steve finally gets her to look at him. Her eyes are wide, her irises so dark, it almost feels like he could fall into them. 

"Steve?" Kono asks, her voice so soft it's almost a whisper. 

"Do you want…" he starts to ask, before he gets distracted. Kono's lips look plush and inviting, and God, Steve really wants to kiss her. So he does. Kono melts into the kiss, drawing a deep breath through her nose, her hand tightening on Steve's thigh. 

Behind him, Steve hears Danny's sharp breath of surprise. Danny's watching them. Danny's watching _him_. The thought makes Steve desperate to do more than just kiss Kono. 

Mindful of the fact that she's a little clumsier than normal, Steve urges Kono into his lap. She moves as he directs, and Steve watches as her gaze slides past him and over to Danny. Steve hazards a look at Danny, and finds him leaning back into the corner of the couch, watching them, his arms open, resting over the back of the couch and the arm rest. He looks sexy enough to eat, and Steve almost reaches for him. But Danny gives a slight shake of his head and nods toward Kono.

"Danny?" Kono asks, an unsure tremor in her voice.

Danny clears his throat. "I could go…"

A shiver of panic runs through Steve and he can't help but make a noise of protest in the back of his throat. When Steve meets Kono's gaze, she studies his face for a moment before saying, "You should stay." It takes Steve a moment to realize she's talking to Danny.

Smiling over at Danny, Steve says, "Yeah. You should stay."

Jaw clenching visibly, Danny meets Steve's eyes. There's this smouldering glint in Danny's expression as he nods again.

Fuck. After that look from Danny, Steve's so hard he can barely think. He pulls Kono into another, desperate kiss, his hands first on her jaw, then her shoulders, then her waist. Kono makes a small noise against Steve's mouth before murmuring, "God, Steve! Please!"

Skip the NC-17 part

Steve pulls at Kono's waist, getting her closer so he can grind up against her. There's too many clothes in the way, and Steve can't help but dip his hands past the elastic of Kono's pants and onto the skin of her ass. She hisses, grinding down against him harder and sucking at his lips. 

As he reaches for the hem of Kono's shirt, Steve hazards another look over at Danny. He looks dangerous, and Steve can't quite tell if that expression is pissed off or turned on. As Steve takes off Kono's shirt, Danny licks his lips, his fingers flexing against the leather of the couch. Turned on, then.

Feeling almost giddy, Steve smiles at Danny before leaning into Kono, kissing her neck and her collarbone. She groans, her hands on Steve's shoulders as she pushes herself up to standing. As soon as Steve realizes that Kono's pushing down her pants and underwear, he gets with the program and unbuttons his shorts. As Steve lifts his hips to push them off, he hears Danny hiss.

"What?" Steve asks, looking over at Danny as he gets his feet out of his shorts.

Danny reaches for Steve, plucking at his t-shirt. "This too," he says, his voice bedroom-thick.

Steve pulls off his shirt and tosses it aside, asking Danny, "Better?"

But Danny's too busy watching Kono climb back into Steve's lap to respond. 

Kono's skin is smooth and warm against Steve's as he wraps his arms around her. She shivers when Steve runs his hands down her back and cups the globes of her ass. His cock is wedged between his belly and the slight swell of Kono's. 

That's Steve's kid in Kono's belly, and the thought makes Steve eager to hold her close and kiss her.

As he does, Steve feels a hand at the back of his neck. A quick glance over tells him it's Danny's hand. The touch feels like an anchor, holding Steve in place, in his body, in this room. 

Adjusting to the weight of Danny's hand, Steve pulls Kono into a kiss. Her kiss is nice—it's always been nice—but Danny's watching them now, which makes Kono's lips taste even sweeter. Steve wants to show off for Danny, wants to show Danny how good he is at taking care of Kono.

Except Kono seems to have a different agenda. Without much of a preamble, she reaches down and grabs Steve's cock. She rubs the head of his cock back through her slit, and Steve can feel how gushing wet she is already. 

Kono sinks down onto Steve with a relieved groan, her gaze rolling up toward the ceiling before her eyes close. She sets her hands on Steve's shoulders as she finishes sinking down, and then lifts up again. Steve wraps his arms around Kono, pressing a kiss to her collarbone and helping her move. 

There's not enough room to get his hand between Steve's body and Kono's, so he's not quite sure how to help her get off. He doesn't know Kono's body the way he knows Catherine's, or even the way he knows Danny's. How is he supposed to—

As Kono starts moving with greater purpose, snapping her hips at the bottom of each stroke, Steve realizes the answer. He's supposed to let Kono use him however she needs. 

Steve keeps his attention on Kono as much as he can with Danny's hand hot on the back of his neck. He moves with her rhythm, using his hands on her hips to take some of her weight. Focusing on keeping Kono moving helps Steve keep his mind only vaguely aware of how good she feels around him. If he were to think about it, or about how much he wants to kiss Danny, he'd end up coming far too soon.

"Oh, fuck," Kono groans all of a sudden, shuddering and grinding down onto Steve. He bites his cheek so he doesn't come at the feel of her body pulsing gently around his cock.

Kono's mouth finds Steve's and she kisses him, breathing heavily through her nose. When she's done kissing Steve, Kono looks over at Danny, and Steve follows her gaze. 

Danny shifts closer, fluidly rolling up onto one knee, the other leg braced on the floor. His one hand squeezes the back of Steve's neck, while the other cups Kono's jaw. "Any better, babe?" he asks in a whisper.

Kono nods, her eyes half-lidded as she circles her hips, drawing a groan from Steve. When she raises up and then drops down onto his cock, her pussy a little tighter, hugging his cock perfectly, Steve finds himself hissing and throwing his head back.

When he brings his head up again, Steve is greeted by the sight of Kono and Danny kissing passionately. Steve is reminded of that night with Catherine, and he gets distracted by watching the way Danny's jaw moves as he kisses Kono.

The sight of them kissing, along with the circling of Kono's hips—drawing him slightly more into her body, and then out again—sends a shiver up Steve's spine. He tries to clench down, tries to hold off, but it's no use. Steve's orgasm won't be denied any longer. 

He grasps onto Danny's arm with one hand, and Kono's hip with the other, driving up into her a few more times as he comes. "Oh, god!"

Except, Kono keeps moving, like she's chasing his dick more and more as his erection starts to flag. And then he starts getting oversensitive, every drag of her pussy over his cock achingly magnificent, and overwhelming. 

"Shit, Kono," Steve groans, grasping at her hips again. "I need a break."

Kono makes a frustrated noise, but lets Steve slip out. The lack of sensation is a relief, until Danny kisses Steve's jaw and murmurs, "She needs your mouth." Steve's cock tries to get hard again at the suggestion, and it _aches_.

"Fuck, would you?" Kono asks, pushing her hair back, away from her face. She's flushed, and so beautiful it makes Steve's throat clench up. A barely-formed thought flits through Steve's head, and he processes only enough of it to know it had to do with his affection for Kono, which feels deeper now than it ever has before.

Steve kisses Kono nice and slow, and says, "Yeah, I'd love to."

Kono nods, and then moves, slipping back onto the couch beside Steve. She leans back against the arm of the couch and—almost shyly—lets her knees fall apart. 

Steve doesn't dive straight in, but it's close, only placing a few kisses on Kono's chest, stomach, and thighs, before he kisses her mound. Gently pulling apart the lips of her pussy, he runs his tongue up the length of her slit, making Kono gasp. It takes a few more tries before he finds her clit, moving it in a few lazy circles with his tongue before sucking on it gently. "Oh, God! Steve!"

Steve smiles, licking at her again, and tasting his come mixed in with her tangy juices. She tastes different from Catherine, but just as good, and Steve loses himself in cataloging how Kono reacts to every movement of his tongue and lips.

Losing himself thoroughly, Steve doesn't notice Danny touching him until a blunt, wet finger presses into his ass. Steve's groan makes Kono shiver and grasp at Steve's hair. Everything—Kono's taste, her nails on his scalp, Danny's finger loosening him up—make the blood rush back into Steve's dick. A wave of dizziness makes everything hazy, and overwhelming, and _so damn good_.

Wanting to make sure Kono gets off before he gets too distracted, Steve slips two fingers into her, crooking them as he sucks harder on her clit. He's rewarded with a long moan and another tug on his hair. 

When the pressure on Steve's ass increases, Steve doesn't have to look back to know it's Danny's cock entering him. As Danny bottoms out, Steve feels the zipper of Danny's slacks digging into his asscheeks. Jesus, Danny didn't even get undressed? Fuck, that's awesome. 

Steve rocks back against Danny as best he can without losing contact with Kono. After a moment, he realizes he's driving his fingers into Kono in the same rhythm as Danny's fucking him. He pictures what it might feel like to have his cock inside Kono at the same time Danny's in him, and suddenly he's right on the edge of coming again. 

Kono distracts Steve by crying out and shaking, her thighs clamped around his head and her rocking hips driving his fingers deeper. A moment later, she's pushing him away, but Danny's fucking him hard, and he has to brace his arms against the couch behind Kono's head to keep from falling on her. 

"Fuck! Danny!" Steve cries out, pushing back against each thrust, and chasing the orgasm that seemed so close just a few seconds ago.

The hand that closes around Steve's cock doesn't feel like Danny's, and by the time Steve is able to open his eyes and investigate, Kono's licking the head of his dick with her hot tongue. 

"Oh, god!" Steve cries out, wishing he could reach down for her. As it is, Danny's fucking him so hard that if Steve were to spare a hand for Kono, he'd probably lose his ground against Danny and end up choking her. Kono spreads her spit down the length of Steve's cock with her hand and Danny pummels Steve's prostate, and there's nothing Steve can do to hold it back. "Kono, I'm gonna—"

Danny wraps an arm around Steve's chest, hauling him upright, which changes the angle of Danny's cock. Danny fucks Steve fast and deep, so when Steve comes, he comes so hard he practically blacks out. He's dimly aware of spilling over Kono's hand as she works him through the aftermath, Danny still riding him rough for a few more seconds, until he stills. Steve recognizes Danny's groan as the one that means he's coming, too.

Steve keeps his eyes closed and breathes, regaining his equilibrium. Danny shifts behind him, dropping away, his weight making the couch dip as he sits down. Steve follows, collapsing down onto the couch, and then laying back on Danny's lap. Except for his fly being open, Danny's still wearing all his clothes, which Steve thinks is ridiculous, but in a cute way. He smiles up at Danny, who rolls his eyes and shakes his head, but smiles all the same.

Kono hovers beside the couch, first wiping her hand on Steve's discarded shirt, and then looking a little lost. Steve holds out a hand to her, drawing her closer when she takes it. Kono settles down onto Steve's chest with only a little prompting, rubbing her cheek against him. 

Steve runs his hand up and down Kono's back, and closes his eyes when Danny runs a hand back through his hair. A contented sigh leaves his lungs, and Kono echos him with a similar sigh. Danny's silent, but that's actually not too weird for Danny after sex, despite his chatty nature in nearly every other context. 

Kono's the first one to speak up, saying, "That was kind of intense."

"Welcome to my world," Danny mumbles with a snort.

Ignoring Danny, Steve asks Kono, "Good intense or not-so-good intense?"

"Good," Kono says, looking up at Steve. "I think." She smiles, and Steve can't help but press a kiss to her forehead.

She snuggles back down against Steve, and he closes his eyes, enjoying the calm. After a few minutes, Kono takes a sharp, snorting breath and sits up, blinking. 

"I fell asleep," she says, her brow furrowed. She reaches toward her clothes, which are on the floor, and groans when she can't quite reach them.

Steve grabs her shirt first, because it's closer, and then reaches further for her shorts and underwear. Steve gets his own pants on as she dresses, more because it seems like the thing to do, than because he feels the need to be dressed. Beside Steve, Danny tucks himself back away and zips up. 

Steve thinks about inviting Kono to stay the night, but he did promise Danny some incentive for staying, and he's fairly certain in Danny's mind that means some time for just the two of them. Standing up from the couch, Steve asks Kono, "Can I walk you home?"

"I live _literally_ next door," Kono says, adjusting her shirt. "I'll be fine."

Kono lets Steve kiss her cheek goodnight, and then she leaves, an extra bounce in her step that Steve can't help but notice.

He closes the door and sets the alarm, smiling at he turns back toward where Danny's still sitting on the couch. "That went... well," Steve says, not quite sure what the very neutral look on Danny's face means.

Danny leans his head against his spread forefinger and thumb. "Steven."

_Uh-oh_. Steve sits down in the armchair. It's a nice, safe distance from Danny. "Yes, Daniel?"

"Your no-big-deal movie night turned into kind of a big deal," he says, his voice eerily calm. "Did you plan on things going this far? Because, you know, I'd rather you didn't play games with me."

"What games?" Steve asks, spreading out his arms. "I swear, Danny. I thought it _was_ just going to be a movie." He gestures toward Danny. "You seemed to enjoy yourself. What's the problem?"

"The problem?" Danny asks with a humorless laugh as he gets up from the couch. "The problem is the fact that _you_ ," he says, stalking over to Steve and leaning down into his space, "can't just say, 'Hey, Danny. I like having threesomes with you. How about one with Kono?' That's a fucking problem."

Steve tries to hear what Danny's saying, tries to understand why he thinks this is a problem, but wherever Danny's coming from, it's incomprehensible. Circling back around, Steve can't help but say, "You kept pushing me at Kono. What was that, Danny? Did you not actually want me to sleep with her?"

Danny backs off a little. "No, I just—" He breaks off with a sigh, and even if Steve doesn't understand it, he can see how hard this is for Danny.

Grasping Danny's wrist gently, Steve pulls until Danny gets the hint and sits in Steve's lap. It's a good sign that he's willing to humor Steve here, and an even better sign when he leans against Steve. "You just what?" Steve prompts.

"I didn't like being blindsided. Like, one minute I'm trying to get you to cuddle with Kono instead of me, and the next minute you're starting to have sex with her." Danny pokes at some of the hairs on Steve's still-bare chest. 

"Okay," Steve says slowly, starting to see where Danny's objection might have come from. "No springing sex on you unexpectedly. Got it."

"Well, I wouldn't say _that_." Danny smirks, his fingers lightly tweaking Steve's nipple. If Steve hadn't just come twice in one hour, maybe his cock would have responded to Danny's teasing. "Just if it's going to be more than the two of us, I'd like to be informed. And I'd like more than just a token opportunity to walk away."

Steve thinks back to the way he reacted when Danny offered to leave, and he feels a little guilty now for his knee-jerk reaction to protest. Taking a good, hard look at Danny, and seeing how open he's being about his feelings—which blows Steve away, because how do you even _do_ that—Steve makes himself promise, "Okay. Yeah, I can do that."

Danny rolls his eyes and says sarcastically, "Well, don't do me any favors," but he lets Steve hug him closer. 

The space behind Danny's ear is within easy reach, so Steve plants a kiss there, smiling when Danny shivers. "I _really_ liked having you here. Watching me," Steve admits in a whisper.

"You do put on a good show," Danny says, taking Steve's hand from where it's resting on his knee and lacing their fingers together. "And Kono is…" He whistles appreciatively.

Steve kisses Danny. "I think you're pretty…" Steve mimics Danny's whistle, and grins.

With a laugh, Danny disentangles himself from Steve and stands up. "I'm going to take a shower, and then _you're_ going to make good on your promise to make this night," he puts up air-quotes with his fingers, "'worth my while.'"

"I haven't done that already?" Steve asks.

Danny scoffs. "I didn't even get undressed." He offers Steve a hand, which Steve takes, allowing Danny to pull him to his feet. "It doesn't count."

Steve is very aware of the wetness in his ass as he follows Danny up the stairs. "Feels like it counted," he says. "And, hey. Where did that lube come from, anyway? I didn't notice you leave the room."

"I stashed a bottle under the couch cushions," Danny replies, turning as he reaches the top of the stairs and walking backward to the bedroom. "After that time last week, when you almost fell asleep on me?"

"That's not my fault," Steve insists, falling back into the same discussion they had the week before. "It had been a rough day."

"I was gone for thirty seconds!"

"I'm Navy! We get sleep when and where we can."

Danny laughs. "Alright, sailor. I guess you'd better come shower with me. Otherwise I might find you out here dead to the world before I'm done."

"That does seem like a distinct possibility," Steve replies. He follows Danny into the bathroom with a bright smile. "Better to head off the inevitable."

Danny smiles and pulls Steve into a kiss.

~*~


	8. June-July 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new arrival at the compound, a new case that hits close to home, and Danny putting off telling his Jersey family that he's moved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter in the end notes. Again, there's a skippable sex scene in this chapter.

Jenna reads over the email again, her heart up in her throat. "I have noticed you display an inordinate interest in your partner's work, and would like to remind you that you were allowed to join the McGarrett compound despite this officer's better judgement. Should my office find evidence that you signed a contract—and received an initial signing bonus—in less than good faith, we will prosecute this breach of contract to the full extent of the law.

"Regards, Corporal Hayley Whitesides, US ARMY, ASEP Division"

"Shit," Jenna says to herself, looking up at the corkboard on her wall. It's covered with pictures and snippets of information about Wo Fat, and it's probably clearly visible through the windows. Any of the guards could have seen it during their daily walkthrough. Or, even though she covered it up when she left her cabin, there had been groceries delivered earlier in the week. ASEP would have had access to her cabin then.

Jenna smacks her forehead with her palm, "Stupid!" She wonders if she should be concerned about listening devices, and then wonders if trying to acquire a bug-scanner would draw too much attention. At least she had the foresight to hide the scraps of evidence Steve has trusted her with behind a loose panel in her bedroom whenever she wasn't working with them directly.

A knock at the door startles her, and Jenna almost thinks it must be Military Police, come to take her away. 

A quick glance tells her it's just Steve, so she opens the door and lets him in. "Hey! What's going on?"

Steve shrugs. "Not much. Danny's got Grace at his place. Catherine fell asleep. I thought I'd come over. See how it's going."

"It's going okay," Jenna responds, really hoping there aren't any listening devices. "I've gone over everything, but I've sort of hit a stumbling block when it comes to running down some of these leads."

Steve stands next to Jenna, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at the board on the wall. "What kind of stumbling block?"

Sighing, Jenna picks up her laptop, which still has the email from ASEP open, and shows it to him. "I'm being surveilled. If I try to access my CIA databases, they're going to think I only came here to track down Wo Fat."

"But you did—" Steve starts to say, before Jenna hurriedly cuts him off.

"Shh! I would _never_ knowingly defraud the American government like that! This Wo Fat thing is just a fun hobby!" Jenna ducks under the coffee table, looking for listening devices. "I mean, why wouldn't I want to help my partner with his cases, so he can come home sooner, and...you know?"

Steve raises an eyebrow at Jenna when she stands back up. "Yeah, I don't know, actually," he says, tilting his head as Jenna looks at the undersides of her bookshelves. 

Jenna gives Steve a significant look and cups her hand around her ear. Then she says, "I'm glad you came by tonight. We really need to start getting to know each other better."

Frowning for a long moment, Steve eventually asks, "Just to be clear this time, we're talking about sex, right?"

"Yes, of course!" Jenna replies, stepping closer to Steve. "I mean, that's the whole reason I'm here, after all." She smiles brightly, but falters as Steve keeps frowning at her. "Unless you were serious about getting me assigned to someone else." Jenna blinks at Steve sadly, hoping her ploy will work.

His expression softening, Steve says, "Yeah, well. I might have been a little hasty, insisting you go elsewhere just because of your former employers."

Thinking that's as good an opening as she's going to get, Jenna asks, "So does that mean you want to give it a shot?"

"You know, Kono and I spent a good six months getting to know each other before we did anything," Steve says. "No one's going to mind if you and I do something similar."

Jenna thinks that over for a moment. Maybe no one would mind if she took her time like Kono did. However, she can't shake the feeling that she's already treading on _very_ thin ice. What she should do is give everyone a show of good faith.

Which means having sex with Steve sooner, rather than later.

It's just sex, right? Jenna can do this.

Giving Steve a smile and winding her arms behind his neck, Jenna says, "I don't think that will be necessary. Do you?"

Steve huffs a little, but he puts his hands on Jenna's hips. "You're sure?" he asks, this sincere look on his face.

"Absolutely," Jenna insists, though her hands are super sweaty and she feels a little faint. It's just a little case of nerves. She can push through it, for Josh's sake.

Ducking down, Steve presses a soft kiss to Jenna's lips. This close up, as Jenna breathes in, her nose is flooded with Steve's scent. And it's not that he smells _bad_ or anything, but he doesn't smell like Josh, and it kind of makes Jenna want to throw up.

Pulling back, Jenna presses her lips together and shakes her head. "You know what? Maybe we should just skip the kissing part, huh?"

Steve frowns. "Skip the kissing part?"

"Yeah," Jenna replies, taking one of Steve's hands in hers and pulling him toward her bedroom. She's a little surprised when he lets her bring him there and set him down on her bed. "Okay. You stay there."

He gives a loud huff, but Steve doesn't leave. Instead, he leans back a little and raises his eyebrows at Jenna. "What are you gonna do?" he asks. Jenna thinks she's probably imagining the amused tone in his voice.

"I'm going to…" Jenna hasn't thought that far ahead. _Shit_.

She has a man on her bed, and she's honestly blanking on what comes next. Well, it couldn't hurt to take off her clothes, right?

Grabbing the hem of her shirt, Jenna pulls it up. Halfway, the fabric gets caught on her earring, pulling it painfully. Jenna freezes, [her shirt up over her head and her arms tangled together](http://outtopasturerefs.tumblr.com/post/147141694135). "Ow."

"Are you—" The bed sheets rustle, and then Steve's hand is on Jenna's upraised arm.

"I'm stuck," she admits, glad the shirt is covering her face, because her cheeks feel beet-red. At least she's still wearing her bra for this humiliating turn of events. "It's my earring."

Steve speaks softly as he says, "Here," and carefully untangles the fabric of her shirt. When he's done, her shirt is back covering her chest and Jenna can't look Steve in the eye. 

"Thanks." Jenna wraps her arms around herself and sits down on her bed. "This shouldn't be this hard."

"Jenna…"

Her eyes burning and her throat feeling thick, Jenna says, "Maybe you should just go."

Crouching down in front of Jenna, Steve says, "Hey," and pauses until Jenna actually looks at him (or tries to through her watery eyes). "We'll try again some other time, okay?"

"Some other time," Jenna repeats with a nod. "Yeah. That would be good."

"Good." Steve smiles and tentatively pats Jenna's knee, like he doesn't know how else to comfort her. "I'll be at my place if you need anything."

"Sounds good." Jenna sniffs loudly, rubbing at her eyes so she can wipe the tears away before they fall.

After Steve has left, Jenna takes a few deep breaths and gathers herself together. If there's any way Josh is still alive, he needs her to do everything in her power to get him back. She pours herself a glass of water, glares at the email on her laptop for a few seconds before shutting it, and then goes back to her evidence board. There has to be some way to connect more of this information. A man with as many business ties as Wo Fat has to leave a trail somewhere.

Jenna's got to be the one who finds it.

~*~

"God d—" Danny cuts himself off, because Grace is in the other room, and she has bat-like hearing. He sets down the wrench (one of the set that Steve loaned him to fix the leaky bathroom sink, since the super was taking his damn time getting around to it). The problem is that while Danny has a vague idea of how sinks work, nothing he's done has seemed to help. 

Enough of this.

Danny stands up and heads out to the main room of his apartment, picking up a rag to wipe his hands on as he goes. "Hey, Monkey?" Danny asks, finding his daughter right where he left her in front of the TV. 

When she doesn't respond, Danny picks up the remote and switches off the TV. Grace turns at the interruption and asks, "What is it, Daddy?"

"How would you feel about me moving?" he asks as he sits down next to her on the currently-folded-up couch.

Grace's eyes go wide. "Moving back to New Jersey?" she asks, a hint of panic in her voice.

"No, no," Danny assures her, putting his arm around Grace. "I meant more like across town. Into a different house."

"Oh," Grace says, looking around the apartment. "Yeah, that would be good."

"'That would be good,' she says!" Danny shakes his head. "You really hate it here that much?"

Grace puts her arm around Danny and hugs him, giving him a bright smile as she looks up at him. "I like that you're here, Danno!"

Danny knows he's being manipulated, but his heart melts just the same. Returning his daughter's smile and clearing his throat, Danny says, "If I did move, it would be into one of the houses in Uncle Steve's compound. There would be lots of security. It might be hard to have friends come over for a visit."

"I never have friends come over here, anyway," Grace says, and Danny has to admit, she's got a point. 

"Yeah, but what happens when the kids at your school find out you're living part-time in an ASEP house? Are they gonna have a problem with that?" Danny watches Grace's face as she thinks it over. 

"I don't know," she says eventually. "Everyone says ASEP kids are kind of weird, but Jenny's in swim class with a girl from ASEP, and Jenny says she's really nice."

"Yeah, and Uncle Steve and Aunt Malia were both ASEP kids," Danny points out. "And—well, Uncle Steve is still kind of a weirdo—but Aunt Malia is pretty normal, right?"

With a giggle, Grace nods her head. "Right!"

"So what do you think on the whole moving thing?" Danny asks. "Yay? Nay?"

"Yay!" Grace cries throwing her hands up in the air.

With a chuckle, Danny says, "Guess that's decided, then! The Williams family is moving!"

~*~

"This isn't actually all that bad," Danny says, walking down the hallway of the little house at the back of the McGarrett compound. He sticks his head into the back bedroom. "I mean, it's a _little_ small."

Steve snorts. "It's at least three times bigger than your apartment, Danny."

"Yeah, well," Danny says with a shrug, following the hallway back toward Steve. "This is really meant to be servant's quarters?"

"On-site child-care help," Steve insists. "And yeah. Either that, or sometimes mothers, if they get married or something after their contract is up, they'll live at this end of the compound. It's close to the kids, but separate enough for their new family."

"That happens?" Danny can't help but ask. "No way in hell you'd get me to let Stan Edwards live in my pool house with my ex-wife."

"It's not the same thing." Steve crosses his arms over his chest and leans against the archway leading to the kitchen.

Danny gives Steve a hard look and puts his hands on his hips. "You're telling me that when all is said and done, you'd let Catherine bring some other guy to live here with her?"

Steve's face undergoes an interesting series of expressions.

"Yeah, I didn't think so." Danny wonders if Steve has always been this dumb about his own feelings, or if this is a new development since Danny met him.

"I would with Kono, though," Steve says, giving that tilt of his head that Danny has come to understand means Steve is done talking about a topic. Gesturing to the house at large, Steve asks, "So, what do you think? Are you gonna move in?"

Danny steps closer to Steve and puts his hands on Steve's hips. "You're not gonna get sick of me, are you?" he asks, forcing himself to look up and meet Steve's eyes. "If I move in here, it's going to be a lot harder to get rid of me."

"Good," Steve says with a contagious smirk. He sets his arms almost possessively over Danny's shoulders and leans in, kissing him.

A small bit of tension in Danny's gut eases, and he relaxes against Steve. It'll be good, won't it? He won't have to split his time between his apartment and Steve's house. He won't have to worry about what clothes are where if it's a two minute walk between his place and Steve's.

Danny kind of wishes that he could just move into Steve's house, but he knows it's probably a little early in their relationship for true cohabitation. A little bit of sane-making space has saved a lot of relationships over the years. Plus, this way Danny doesn't have to share a bedroom with Grace when Steve has "duties" to attend to. 

"Mm," Stege says as he pulls back to look at Danny. "You know, we could get a head start on christening your new place."

Danny laughs. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Steve replies, pulling Danny by the shoulders into the kitchen and gently backing him against the counter. "We could start right here, in the kitchen."

As Steve's hands drop to Danny's waist and then his belt, Danny says, "Right, um, here in the kitchen. Yeah, that's good. Not exactly sanitary, but…" Steve drops to his knees with a dirty smile. "Okay. Sure. We're doing this."

Skip the NC-17 part

Danny braces himself on the counter as Steve gets his pants undone and around his ankles, followed by his boxers. Steve grins again, wrapping his hand around Danny's cock and giving it a light stroke.

"You're so hard for me already," Steve says with a chuckle.

"It's kinda— _Ah!_ —difficult not to be," Danny confesses as Steve licks the head of Danny's cock. 

"Good to know." Steve sits back on his heels, his hand stroking Danny almost unconsciously. "You like kissing me, don't you?"

Giving a frustrated huff, Danny says, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought this was a blowjob, but it's a conversation about your kissing skills? Yes, I like kissing you!"

"And you're not just saying that because I've got my hand on your dick, are you?" Steve's fist closes a little tighter, and the friction is intense, but just shy of painful.

"I swear to god, Steven," Danny growls. "If you don't stop teasing, I'm gonna take it out on your ass right here on the kitchen floor."

Steve's eyebrows shoot up, and he smiles, but his eyes go dark. Leaning forward, Steve licks Danny's cock again, wetting it before wrapping his lips around it and sinking down.

"Oh, fuck," Danny sighs, pushing a hand back through Steve's short hair. "I swear, you have the most talented mouth. Kissing, head, it's all good."

Steve hums happily, the vibration sending a shockwave up Danny's spine that makes him shiver.

"Yeah, babe. Fuck, that's good." Danny watches Steve as best he can, torn between wanting to focus on the sensation of Steve's lips and tongue around him, and wanting to catch for what feels like the hundredth time what Steve looks like with Danny's cock in his mouth. It is one of his favorite sights, hands down.

Another one of Danny's favorite sights is getting Steve as turned on as humanly possible. And Danny's slowly figuring out how to do that, too. "You know who else has a great mouth?"

Popping off and using his hand to keep jacking Danny off, Steve asks, "Is now really the time to talk about your ex—"

Danny cuts off Steve by saying, "Catherine." Steve's hand stills. "Catherine?" he asks breathlessly. "Like the other day when…"

"Yeah," Danny says, running his thumb over Steve's wet, swollen bottom lip. "That thing she did with her tongue? Ugh, drove me wild!"

Steve swallows audibly, and then puts his mouth back on Danny. He does a fair approximation of the move Catherine used, and Danny wonders how many times she's used it on Steve. "Yeah, that's the one. Fuck…"

Danny feels himself edging closer and closer to coming as Steve redoubles his efforts. "Ohhh!"

Steve's phone rings. Loudly.

"Oh, Jesus, fuck! Don't answer that!" Danny cries, but Steve's already got the phone to his ear.

"McGarrett."

Danny grips the counter and clenches his teeth, a hair's breadth away from coming. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he mutters under his breath, sinking to the floor as his legs give out.

"What? Already?" Steve asks, and Danny _really_ doesn't like the sound of that. "But you just assigned—"

Steve goes silent for a long moment, and Danny debates to himself the option of just getting himself off before he has a coronary waiting like this. As Danny reaches for his dick, Steve slaps his hand away and frowns.

"Yes, I know what I said." Steve knocks Danny's hand away again. "I take it back, okay? I won't be putting in a transfer request for Jenna Kaye. So—"

Steve meets Danny's gaze and rolls his eyes before shaking his head. He switches his phone to the other hand and wraps his now-free hand around Danny's cock. Closing his eyes, Danny drops his head back against the kitchen cabinet and hisses in relief as Steve strokes him. 

"Yeah, fine," Steve says, his tone more than a little pissed off. "Thanks for the heads up, Corporal." He ends the call and sets his phone aside. "Sorry, Danno."

"You're such an asshole," Danny says through gritted teeth. "Answering your phone in the middle of sex? I hate you."

"No, you don't." Steve gets his belly on the floor, his head in Danny's lap. "You love me."

Danny hisses as Steve takes Danny's cock back into his mouth. "Keep doing that and I'll definitely love you again," Danny murmurs, petting Steve's hair. 

Steve snorts, but he doesn't get distracted from his task this time, and it's less than a minute later that Danny finally gets to come. "Ah, fuck."

Licking his lips, Steve gets up onto his knees, and Danny can't help but pull him into a sloppy kiss. Steve ends up sitting on Danny's legs, letting Danny open his cargo shorts and get his cock out as they kiss. Giving Steve a leisurely stroke, Danny asks, "So, they're sending a new chick, huh?"

"Mm," Steve says, resting his forehead on Danny's shoulder and tipping his hips up to fuck Danny's fist. "Some Air Force Major named Marcon."

Danny spits into his hand quickly before wrapping it back around Steve's cock. "Yeah? And how do you feel about that?"

Steve sits back, raising his eyebrows at Danny. "Really? Daniel?"

"What?" Danny asks, squeezing a little harder, but making his stroke exceptionally slow.

"Go back to talking about Catherine blowing you," Steve says, giving a sharp thrust into Danny's fist. " _That_ I liked."

"Yeah, I could tell," Danny says, running his free hand up inside the back of Steve's shirt. "I just thought if the call on this subject was important enough to _take_ , it would also be important enough to talk about."

Steve groans. "I don't know, okay?" he says, his voice strained as he grasps Danny's shoulders. "I just hope this one actually wants to kiss me. Come on, Danny!"

"You're back on the kissing thing? What's with the kissing thing?"

Steve shakes his head, but doesn't answer until Danny stops moving his hand. "Fine! Jenna doesn't want to kiss me. Last night, she wanted to have sex, but then she wouldn't kiss me, and she got stuck in her shirt, and she practically started crying, so I left. It was awful. Happy?"

Danny pictures what that must have looked like, and he almost chuckles, but the part about her crying dampens his urge to laugh. "Why was she even trying to have sex with you? I thought she was just here for her case."

"She's afraid ASEP will throw her out if she doesn't," Steve replies, sighing. He lets more of his weight sit on Danny's legs. He looks away from Danny before saying softly, "What if this new woman doesn't want me either? What if ASEP thinks I'm not trying hard enough, and they make me get rid of you?"

Danny takes his hand away from Steve's cock and wraps his arms around Steve's torso instead, pulling him closer. "If that happens, I say they can try, but they're not going to like the results. In case you haven't noticed, between the two of us, we're very stubborn."

The smile and the little chuckle that Steve gives him make Danny's chest warm and his arms squeeze Steve harder. Steve cups Danny's face with both hands, his thumbs brushing over Danny's cheeks. "That's very true," Steve says, tilting Danny's face up as he brings his own down for a kiss.

As that kiss quickly gets filthy, Danny breaks away and asks, "What say we go desecrate another room, huh?"

Steve grins. "I like the sound of that."

~*~

Kono watches with rapt attention as the image on the screen changes as the ultrasound technician moves the device around. "Wow," she says, catching a glimpse of the baby moving before it goes still again. "Catherine said this was cool, but I had no idea."

"Yeah," Steve replies, his mouth open as he watches the screen too. Pointing, he says, "Look at its heart!"

Looking over, Kono sees the fluttering in the middle of the baby's torso—an unmistakable heartbeat. "Very cool," she says, squeezing Steve's hand.

"You said you wanted to know the baby's sex?" the technician asks, moving the device around and pointing it at a different angle.

"Sure," Kono replies. "I've never been a big fan of surprises."

It takes a long few seconds before the technician says, "It's a boy."

"Another boy?" Steve asks with a little laugh. 

When Kono looks over at him, she notices Steve's eyes are looking a little wet. "Are you okay with that?"

"Y-yeah. Yes," Steve says, wiping his face against his shoulder. He gives Kono a smile. "Freddie and I were only a few months apart, too."

Looking up at the screen, at the black-and-white outline of a future person, Kono thinks about him having a life-long best friend in Catherine's baby, his half-brother. She smiles. That sounds really nice, and Kono can't help but be happy for him. All she ever had growing up were older cousins and friends from school and surfing.

Steve smiles again and kisses Kono's knuckles. She rolls her eyes at him, but she notices she's still smiling five minutes later.

~*~

"Thanks for doing this," Jenna says, watching as Steve passes his sensing device over just about every surface in her apartment. "I just… I don't like the idea of…" Just in case there are any bugs that Steve hasn't found yet, she doesn't finish her thought.

"No problem," Steve says, finishing one wall and heading for the next one to his right. "It's the least I could do after the other day."

Jenna feels her cheeks go red at the mention of the last time she was alone in a room with Steve. Awkwardly wrapping her arms around herself, Jenna says, "Yeah, I'm so sorry about that. I don't know what happened."

Steve shrugs. "You needed more time."

Pressing her lips together, Jenna nods. She sits down on the couch in her living room and waits, watching Steve sweep the rest of the room.

"And that's it," he says, turning back toward Jenna with a tiny bit of a flourish. Jenna wonders if he always would have done that, or if he picked up that specific piece of body language from Danny. "No bugs in your cabin."

A relieved breath escapes Jenna's lungs in a rush. "Oh, thank god. After what happened, I couldn't stand the thought of anyone else listening in when it did happen."

"It's okay," Steve insists, sitting down next to Jenna on the couch. "I mean, I'm still not convinced we actually need to do the deed. Tell me, what's your exit strategy? We catch Wo Fat, and then what?"

"We get him to tell us where Josh is," Jenna insists. 

Steve frowns, as he nods. "You have no good evidence that he's still alive."

"I don't have a body either." Jenna shakes her head, clasping her hands together and leaning over them. She looks Steve right in the eye as she tells him, "If anyone could survive this long, it's Josh. He's kind of like you that way."

Steve smiles and looks away with a little snort, and _God_ it reminds her of Josh.

With a sudden flash of understanding, Jenna tells Steve, "That's why I froze up the other day."

"Why?"

"You remind me too much of Josh," Jenna insists. "But you're not him."

"No, I'm not," Steve says softly. He watches Jenna for a minute and then asks, "How do you think he would feel about this?"

Jenna can't afford to second-guess herself now, so she has to say, "He'd understand. He knows what it's like to complete a mission using any means necessary."

"Uh-huh." Steve doesn't sound as convinced as Jenna would like him to be. 

"Look," she says, catching Steve's eye as best she can. "If I could figure out how to make it so you remind me less of my fiancée, I would."

"Maybe it's something we can both think about for a few days," Steve says, pushing himself up from the couch. 

Jenna follows Steve toward the door, nodding. "Yeah. That sounds good. In the meantime, I think I've figured out a way around my information access problems. I'll keep working on it and let you know what I find out about Wo Fat's current whereabouts."

"Thank you," Steve replies. "We'll keep working the case from our end. He won't be able to hide forever."

With that, Steve heads out and Jenna is left alone, with her work, again. She has to admit that it would be nice to be able to connect with someone again, even if it's not Josh. A girl can only pine in solitude for so long.

~*~

"You know, I can put my own clothes away," Danny says as he brings another box into the bedroom of his new place.

Smiling, Catherine answers, "I want to help, and since I'm not allowed to carry anything…"

"Yeah, wouldn't want to hurt this little guy," Danny says, letting his hand hover over Catherine's belly while he waits for her to nod. When she does, he rubs his hand over her belly, startled a little when his hand gets kicked. "Ha! Still has a soft spot for his Danno!"

"He does," Catherine says with a laugh, putting her hand over Danny's. She gives him this soft smile, and Danny's kissing her before he realizes what he's doing.

Taking a sharp breath, Danny backs up. "Sorry," he says, rubbing a hand over his face. "Sorry. I got a little carried away."

Catherine chuckles and pulls Danny's hand away from his face. "It's okay. So did I."

She's giving him that soft smile again, and yeah. Danny recognizes that he's got some feelings going on here, even if he's not quite sure what to do with them. "Maybe I shouldn't have you organizing my underwear drawer, huh?"

"Yeah, maybe," Catherine says, letting go of Danny's wrist and tugging on the edges of his collar instead. " _Or_ we could make out on your new bed and time how long it takes Steve to find us and then absolutely lose his mind." Catherine grins and tilts her head.

Danny can't help but laugh. "You're such a troublemaker."

Footsteps approach the bedroom doorway and Kono sticks her head in. "Hey, guys. An Army transport just pulled through the gate. Steve thinks it's the new girl."

"Yeah?" Danny asks, letting Catherine loop her arm through his as they head through the house after Kono. "What do you ladies think? Same reception as last time, or do we want to be nice this time around?"

"Well, we did actually get some notice this time," Kono points out. "Maybe that means we should be nice to her?"

"But not, like, _too_ nice." Catherine's breathing heavier than normal, so Danny slows down his pace for her. "We wouldn't want her to think we don't care about Steve, or that it's going to be easy finding time with him."

"Steve told me she's an Air Force Major," Danny tells the girls. "That's gotta mean she's no wilting flower. Hell, she might even thrive on competition."

"Ha! Like the rest of us don't?" Kono asks with a snort. 

"I guarantee you none of us is as competitive as Steve," Danny replies. "Not even the, uh," he gestures to Kono, "professional athlete."

"Now _that_ is true," Catherine says. "No offense, Kono."

"Oh, none taken. I've seen the boss when HPD doesn't want to give up a case." She makes a face, raising her eyebrows and widening her eyes. "Scary."

"Yeah, how many cases have they refused to hand over lately?" Danny asks her, helping Catherine up the couple of stairs in the pathway. 

"Zero!"

"So, have we decided?" Catherine asks, her hand still clasped in Danny's, even though the stairs are a dozen yards behind them now. 

Steve appears on the path ahead of them. "Hey, there you guys are. Decided what?"

Catherine looks over at Danny, and Kono pats Danny on the shoulder, saying, "Let's just play it by ear, huh?"

Shaking his head, Steve says, "C'mon. I want you guys to meet her." He leads the way up the path to his house, opening the door and holding it as Danny, Kono, and Catherine all file through.

The woman sitting in Steve's living room stands as soon as Danny crosses the threshold, coming to immediate attention that way Danny has noticed military people tend to do, even when it's not required of them. The woman is wearing an Army uniform—pants, no skirt—and her dark hair is pulled back into a tight-looking bun. Now, Danny is not adverse to spending a little sweat in the name of good hair, but this bun looks almost painful. Danny wonders if it's hard to think with your hair that tight. Then he wonders what other parts of her anatomy might be equally tight, and holds back on the urge to give Steve his condolences. 

"Guys," Steve says, his hand on Catherine's shoulder and the other gesturing toward the new woman. "This is Major Angelique Marcon, US Air Force. Angelique, this is my family. This is Lieutenant Catherine Rollins, Officer Kono Kalakaua, and Detective Danny Williams."

Angelique offers her hand to each of them in turn. "I was told there were three _female_ partners," she says in a heavy southern accent. She gives Danny a polite, if strained, smile. 

"Oh, that's not me," Danny assures her. "Jenna is…" He looks over to Steve and shrugs. 

"Jenna Kaye," Steve says, giving Danny a slight shake of his head that absolutely means 'keep your mouth shut'. "She's working at the moment. I'm sure she'll be home later."

"Ah." She sizes up Danny again before saying, "Forgive me. I'm just a little confused about Detective Williams."

"He has that effect on people," Steve insists, reaching toward Angelique. "Why don't I show you to your cabin? You can settle in while the rest of us finish moving Danny into his place."

Angelique gives Steve a long, searching look before responding. "Alright. If you say so, McGarrett."

Once they're out of earshot, Danny asks Catherine, "So, what do you think gave me away? The Adam's Apple?"

Chuckling, Catherine scratches at Danny's cheek. "I think it was the scruff."

"Do you think Steve is going to tell her?" Kono asks, leaning to peer out the window and watch as Steve and Angelique walk away. "You know, about you and him…"

Danny shrugs and heads toward Steve's kitchen. He could use something to drink after moving boxes all morning. "I guess it's the same as when Jenna got here. Either she finds out on her own—"

"Which won't take long," Catherine interrupts, following Danny into the kitchen. "The way you two are all over each other all the time is pretty conspicuous."

She sounds a little jealous, which Danny doesn't like. He doesn't feel like confronting it right now, either. Danny finds a sports drink in Steve's fridge and pops it open as he replies, "Yeah, and it's not like I'm going to let Steve move me in, and then make me this big secret. I don't like secrets."

"Naval Intelligence would not have been your forte, huh?" Catherine raids the freezer, pulling out a container of chocolate ice cream, which she waves as Kono joins them. 

"I mean, I understand why some secrets are necessary," Danny concedes. "But relationships and secrets do not mix. Trust me on that."

Kono takes three spoons from the drawer, gives one to Catherine, and tries to hand one to Danny. "Biggest secret I ever kept from a boyfriend was that I was the one who lost one of his t-shirts. I wore it to the beach and it blew away when I was in the water. Told him I had no idea what had happened to it."

Danny waves away the offer of a spoon. He knows better than to get between two pregnant ladies and their food. "Yeah? And how did that relationship work out?"

"He went to senior prom with someone else," Kono confesses with a wry smile, scooping some ice cream out of the container and eating it.

"See?" Danny says, watching Catherine as she eats. "Honesty in relationships is important."

Catherine catches Danny's eye for a second before looking back down at the ice cream. "Yeah. It is."

~*~

"So, Commander," Angelique says as Steve walks her toward the last of the four cabins on the near side of the compound. "You've been here nearly a year, according to the records I was shown. Is your compound fairly well established, or are things still a little up-in-the-air?"

"Things?" Steve asks, catching sight of Angelique's bright, intelligent eyes, and wondering what she's trying to get at.

"Interpersonal relationships," she clarifies, stepping into the already-furnished cabin and taking a seat at the small kitchen table. "I'd like to know more about what _wasn't_ in your file. For example, you introduced those three people as your family. Lieutenant Rollins and Officer Kalakaua are listed as your breeding partners, so I understand the impulse to call _them_ family. Detective Williams is listed as a consultant."

"You memorized the file," Steve guesses, pulling out the chair opposite of Angelique's and sitting on it. 

"Force of habit, I'm afraid," she says with a wry smile. 

Steve can't help but chuckle softly. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Difficult to carry mission briefings out into the field."

"Or into the cockpit." Leaning closer to the table, Angelique taps it with her index finger. "Listen. My career with the Air Force is over. I'm looking to fulfill my obligation to ASEP as quickly as possible so I can secure the position I want at the DOD. Will you help me with that goal, Steve? Or will you force me to walk into a possible minefield blind?"

A frown pulls at Steve's lips as soon as Angelique mentions leaving when she's contractually able to do so. He crosses his arms over his chest and sits back, watching her face. "My mother left this compound when I was five years old," he tells Angelique. "I never saw her again."

"Oh, dear. She was killed in combat?"

Shaking his head, Steve replies, "As far as I know, she's still alive."

"Oh." Angelique frowns, folding her hands together on the table. Suddenly, her eyebrows shoot upward. "Oh! You think I might do the same to my children."

"DOD doesn't have very extensive operations here on Oahu," Steve points out. "The most logical place for you to go would be Washington."

"That's true," she drawls, sitting back in her chair and taking a long look at Steve. "It's also true that I'm under no obligation to stay with the children. No obligation to raise them."

This feels an awful lot like a battle of wills, so Steve meets her eyes with a steady gaze. "There's obligation, and then there's the right thing to do," he says.

"So, hindering my entire career for the sake of children I have no interest in _is_ the right thing to do?" Angelique blinks slowly, and Steve's blood boils.

Standing up suddenly, Steve makes it halfway to the door before Angelique's voice stops him. "Sit down, sailor. Can't you tell I'm pulling your leg?"

The thing is, Steve couldn't tell she was joking. He's not sure whether to be impressed or annoyed. With a frown, he sits in his chair and watches the way Angelique's dark eyes hold steady, but crinkle at the edges as she smiles. 

"So," Steve asks, "what are your plans, then?"

"Deputy director of the Air National Guard here on Oahu when the children are young. When they're school-aged, I might transfer to D.C. Like you said, there's more of a job base there." Angelique smiles. "Of course, I would keep in regular contact, and fly back here as often as possible. As soon as they hit Eisenhower Prep, of course, I would be able to see them more often."

"Assuming they qualify for Eisenhower," Steve points out.

Angelique raises an eyebrow. "I don't know how they do it here in Hawaii, but in New Orleans my Daddy made sure each and every one of us kids was prepared for military school."

Steve hates the implication that it was somehow his father's fault that Mary decided to deliberately bomb out of the program. If it was anyone's fault, it was Doris's, for failing to be there while Steve and Mary were growing up. "We were prepared just fine, thank you."

With a smile, Angelique says, "I did see your Annapolis transcript in your file. Top of your class, which I reckon means your Daddy did something right!"

Steve shakes away the memory of studying with Freddie, competing with him for that place at the top, all while making sure it didn't go to someone else. Clearing his throat, Steve says, "Well, consider me reassured, at least." He gives Angelique a long look, trying to discern how truthful she's being. His gut says very, and Steve has always been one to go with his gut. 

"And what assurances do I have that you'll be a good father to my children?" Angelique asks, a wry tilt to her brow. 

"No assurances," Steve tells her. "Just my word that I want to do right by this program that my grandfather, my father, and my brother all believed in."

She nods, seemingly satisfied. Steve finds himself watching Angelique, even as she watches him for a long moment. Finally, it's her who breaks the silence. "You never did answer my question about Detective Williams."

"Danny is…" Steve sighs, shaking his head and looking off into the distance. It takes him awhile to find the right word. "He's my _ohana_. Along with Catherine. And Kono. And the babies." Seeing the blank look on Angelique's face, Steve tries to elaborate. " _Ohana_ means—"

"Oh, I saw the movie, Commander," Angelique says. She presses her lips together for a moment, and then says, "I'd appreciate it we could maintain a certain...distance, you and I. A professional working relationship. I'm not here looking for someone to love me, and I'm not here looking to be part of your _ohana_ , as you say. I'm here to fulfill my duty to my country. Is that going to be a problem for you, Commander?"

Steve frowns. While it is his duty to have children with this woman—and any other women ASEP deems fit—it makes Steve uneasy that she wants to accomplish it in a "professional working relationship." He gives her a long look. She's beautiful, and forceful in that way Steve likes. 

But she doesn't like him.

_Yet_.

Steve gives Angelique one of his most charming smiles. "No problem here, Major. No problem at all."

~*~

Steve is coming out of a dream—for once, it's something nonsensical and not about Freddie's death—when the sound of a phone ringing wakes him. Beside Steve, Catherine stirs with a pained mutter. She's using Danny's whole body as a pillow, her head on his shoulder, her belly on his hip, and her upper leg slung over his legs. Steve has no idea how they can sleep like that. The last time either one of them tried to sleep that close to him, he was sweating five minutes later, completely uncomfortable. 

Not wanting to wake them before he finds out who's calling, Steve hits the button to answer the call as he's getting out of bed and steps into the hallway before speaking. "McGarrett."

"Commander McGarrett," says the Governor's weary voice. "There's been an attack on another ASEP compound. At least three people are dead, and several children have been taken. I want your team on this as soon as possible."

"I understand, Governor," Steve says, fighting the urge to check on everyone else in his own compound, just to be sure they're safe. "Who got attacked?"

"Sam Redding, former Navy SEAL. The compound is in Waipahu; I'll make sure you get the address." She gives a long sigh, and says, "Bring those kids home, Steve."

"I will," he promises her. In the end, Steve knows that it matters she has ties to the Yakuza. It matters that she might be involved in the corruption that drove Steve's father from the police force. However today all that matters is recovering some innocent kids. He's not even sure he'll be able to recover them, but he knows he's willing to die trying.

Hanging up, Steve heads back into the bedroom, approaching Danny's side of the bed and kneeling down beside it. He gently shakes Danny's shoulder, whispering, "Wake up. We've got a case."

Catherine struggles to push herself up, blinking slowly at Steve. "We've'a case?"

"Just Danny and me," Steve assures her. "Go back to sleep, Cath."

She nods sleepily and turns over, the shifting weight of her belly making the bed shudder slightly. She takes Steve's pillow and puts it between her knees, stabilizing her upper hip and belly.

Danny rubs his face with his hands before brushing his fingers back through his hair. Steve smiles at how ingrained the gesture is in Danny; he's doing it before he's fully conscious. Still moving sleepily, Danny reaches out toward Steve, grasping Steve's hand and flicking up his chin. Steve understands the gesture after half a second, standing and pulling to help Danny get to his feet. 

"Out front in fifteen?" Danny asks in a whisper, stumbling past Steve and grabbing a sweatshirt from the chair in the corner of the room.

Steve thinks about the missing kids, and about how every minute could be taking them that much further away from Oahu. "Better make it ten."

"You want Kono, too?"

Steve looks at the time on his phone, and tries to assess how much he needs Kono at HQ versus how much she needs to sleep through the rest of the night. Oh well. She can take a nap on Steve's couch if she needs to. "Yeah. Wake her up. We'll need everyone on this one."

~*~

Chin isn't surprised that he makes it to the crime scene first. For one, his and Malia's house is closer to Waipahu than the McGarrett compound. And for two, Chin's bed is about twenty feet from his bike. The distance between Danny's new house and his parking spot in the McGarrett compound carport has got to be at least ten times as far. 

Convenient distances to blame, Chin ends up being the one to brief Steve as he, Danny, and Kono all arrive in the Camaro. "Welcome to the Redding compound," Chin says, opening his arms in welcome before leading his team mates toward the ring of floodlights already set up around the first body. "Meet Lieutenant Sam Redding," Chin says, pointing down to the body, which Max is studying. "Patriarch of the compound. Former Navy SEAL. He fired his gun at least once," Chin points to the weapon near the body's right hand, "before he was shot and killed."

"What happened to his leg?" Danny asks, pointing to the deflated lower half of Redding's left pant leg.

Before Chin can answer, Kono does. "He lost it in Afghanistan," she says, crouching down next to the body, despite her visible baby bump. 

Crouching down next to her, Chin asks, "You knew him?"

"No." Kono shakes her head and gives Chin a sad smile. "I saw his file when I got recruited to ASEP. I could've chosen him instead of McGarrett."

Looking at the crime scene around them, Chin says, "I bet you're glad you ended up where you did."

Kono shakes her head. "Noshimuri's men got into the McGarrett compound. I'm just lucky they wanted to steal evidence, not people."

Down at their level, but on the other side of the body, Steve says, "Noshimuri's men stole Mary."

"Right. Sorry," Kono says, looking more than a little chagrined. 

Wanting to break the awkward moment, Chin continues relaying the information he's gathered since arriving on scene. "Unlike that incident, security here wasn't bypassed by tasing the guard, or by taking out the alarm system at the source."

"So, how did they do it?" Steve asks, standing and offering his hand to Kono as she rises too.

"Both guards were shot," Chin says, leading the way back toward the gate entrance. He points to a pool of blood that the crime scene techs are photographing. "It looks like a simultaneous blitz attack, as neither was able to draw their weapon. One was hit in the heart, died instantly." Chin points to the sheet-covered body next to the guard but. "The other has a collapsed lung. She's in critical condition, but the doctors think she might make it."

"And the security system?" Steve asks, looking through the guard-house window. 

"Didn't bother to disarm it," Chin replies. "Someone stepped inside the guard house to open the door, but they were in and out within minutes."

"They knew the layout of the compound," Kono says, heading back through the gates. 

Chin and Steve follow her, and the three of them are met by Danny. "Hey, I just interviewed one of the survivors. She—" He breaks off, shaking his head with a sound that might be a disbelieving laugh. "She was up, feeding her three-week-old, when she heard the alarm. Some guy burst into the nursery wearing a ski mask, so she threw her knife directly into his heart. Dropped him like _that_!" Danny snaps his fingers. "I asked what the mother of a newborn was doing armed with a knife that could be thrown like that, and this woman—Sarah—says she's never without one."

"Smart," Steve says, an almost-proud grin on his face. Chin would bet anything that Steve is itching to talk to the woman. 

In fact, Steve starts heading back in the direction Danny came from, waving Chin to follow him. Kono and Danny stay behind, talking to Max. A few paces down the path toward the nursery, Steve asks, "How many missing?"

"Four," Chin replies. "Three children—ages 9 months, 2 years, and 3 years—and a partner, 27 years old. Abigail Turner. She's seven months pregnant."

Steve pauses, his jaw clenched, for just a second before resuming his pace. "Any other casualties?"

"A nanny was killed, and the third partner was injured, both in the children's room."

Steve's jaw clenched again, and Chin wonders why the governor thought it would be a good idea putting Steve on this case. She should have known it would hit extremely close to home for him. Then again, if Steve's suspicions are correct, and the governor is corrupt, maybe Steve's welfare doesn't mean that much to her at all.

When Steve and Chin get to the nursery, they find Duke sitting with the mother and her newborn. The baby is asleep, and the mother looks a lot like Steve, actually, with her short-cropped hair and her jaw clenched. 

As Chin and Steve approach, Duke hangs up his phone and nods at them. "We got an ID on the dead intruder."

Thinking the mother doesn't need to know the name of the man she killed just yet, Chin gestures Duke toward the hallway. Steve doesn't even wait to hear the name before he's in the room, sitting next to the woman and talking to her softly.

Looks like Chin's won that bet with himself.

"What's the name?" Chin asks Duke.

His perpetually sad-looking eyes even sadder than usual, Duke says, "Jimmy Kondou."

Recognizing the surname, Chin asks, "Japanese?"

Duke nods. 

Making sure to keep his voice low, Chin asks, "Yakuza?"

"We don't know for sure, but the tattoos…" Duke shakes his head.

Chin can't help but sigh. "When we took down Sang Min and his Triads for trafficking last year, the Yakuza must've cornered the market." He doesn't mention out loud anything about Jenna tying The Dragon–Wo Fat—to the Yakuza here on the island. Duke doesn't need to know.

"I can have my officers start canvassing known Yakuza areas. See if anyone saw something," Duke offers.

With a nod, Chin says, "Along with the Amber alert for the missing kids, that's a good idea. They're going to want to move them off the island fast, so the sooner we get a lead the better."

~*~

"Anything yet?" Steve asks as he and Danny walk into HQ. Danny's not surprised to see Catherine and Jenna already there, along with Chin and Kono. 

"Nothing solid," Kono replies, typing something on the computer table. "You guys?"

"Sang Min didn't have anything useful to say," Danny tells her with a sigh. "Claims he's completely out of the loop now that he's in prison."

"Kamekona didn't have anything either," Chin tells them. He turns to Jenna, "Want to tell them about your source?"

Looking around furtively, Jenna waves Steve and Danny closer, until the whole team is leaning over the smart table. Well, Catherine is more leaning sideways _against_ the table, but she can't really bend very far at the waist these days. In a low voice, Jenna says, "One of my analyst friends at the FBI says they saw a similar kidnapping from a compound outside Coronado six weeks ago. One of the compound employees was paid off for her access codes, before being murdered a week after the kidnapping."

"Someone tying up loose ends," Steve says, and Danny silently nods in agreement.

"Were they able to trace the money?" Danny asks.

"No," Jenna replies with a pleased smile. "But I was. It came from an account I've linked to The Dragon."

Danny rolls his eyes at her use of that ridiculous code name. It's not like saying "Wo Fat" three times is going to make the boogeyman appear. 

Distracted when his phone rings, Danny only half-catches what Catherine says about monitoring outgoing communications and travel. The caller ID on his phone says, "Matty", and it's such a weird time for his brother to be calling that Danny can't help but jump to the conclusion that something is wrong. 

Stepping away from the group, Danny answers his phone. "Yeah, Matty? What's going on? What's wrong?"

On the other end, Matt laughs. "Nothing's wrong! Can't I just call my big brother to let him know I'm coming for a visit?"

"Coming for a—" Danny lets out a relieved breath, and then the implications of a visit from Matt hit him. " _Here?_ You're coming to Hawaii?"

"Yeah!" Matt cries.

Looking back at the rest of his team—and especially Steve—Danny asks, "When?"

He wants to kick himself for already turning over the keys to his old apartment. No one in Jersey knows yet that he's moved.

"Next week! Isn't that great?"

" _Next week_?" Danny asks, barely able to hide the panic that wants to come out in his voice. "Wow! That's so soon!"

"I know, it's kinda short notice—"

"Yeah, you think?"

Matty pushes on forward. "But my firm is sending me out there for a meeting, and I was able to wrangle a few extra days so I can see you and my favorite niece."

Shit. Danny knew he was going to have to have a conversation with his parents eventually, but he was hoping that the 5000 mile distance and judicious application of the post office's mail forwarding service was going to buy him a few months at least. With Matt headed here to the island, there's no way Danny's going to be able to keep his secret for much longer at all.

"Sounds great, Matty," Danny says, trying to sound cheerful. "You want me to tell Grace you're coming, or to keep it a surprise?"

With a chuckle, Matt says, "Oh, a surprise, definitely. I wouldn't want her to be disappointed if this deal falls through and I don't actually make it out there."

Danny says his goodbyes and hangs up, just in time for Steve to start walking toward him. 

"Everything okay?" Steve asks.

"Yeah," Danny insists, stowing his phone in his pocket and then running a hand back over his hair. "I mean, I gotta face the music and tell my parents I've moved, but other than that, everything is good."

"Ah." Steve looks at Danny for a long moment, and then takes a sharp breath. "How 'bout we focus on the case first, and worry about your parents after we've found the kids?"

Shaking his head to clear it, Danny says, "Yeah. That's a good idea. Focus on the case." He gives Steve what he hopes is a brave smile. "What have we got?"

~*~

"What are you doing back here?" Kono asks when Catherine walks into the Five-0 headquarters just after one in the afternoon. "I thought you had to be at work today."

Sullenly, Catherine sits down in one of the chairs at the edge of the smart table area. "Yeah, I thought so too."

It only takes Kono a moment before she's turning away from her work and asking, "What's wrong?"

Catherine holds out a piece of paper in Kono's direction. "One of my contacts in Japan gave me this address for a Yakuza warehouse here on the island."

"A possible holding site for the kidnapped kids?" Kono asks as she takes the paper.

Catherine nods.

Brows furrowed, Kono says, "But this is a _good_ lead, Catherine!" She starts typing the address into the computer table. "Why the long face?"

With a sigh, Catherine admits, "My CO wasn't too thrilled with my 'misappropriation of Naval Resources'."

Kono's jaw drops. "Oh no! What happened?"

"He suggested I start my maternity leave a month early, and by suggested, I mean he gave me very little choice in the matter." Catherine scoffs, trying not to ball her fists too tightly at the thought of the Commander and his stupid, smug mustache. 

With a sad smile, Kono reaches over and squeezes Catherine's shoulder. "I'm sure we could use your help around here, if you want to keep working." She leans a little closer and whispers, "I get the feeling that after last night's raid on the Redding compound, Steve's anxious to keep us close."

Catherine's sure Kono is right about Steve, but she can't help but roll her eyes. "As if we can't take care of ourselves. I've been a naval officer for thirteen years."

"I've only been a police officer for six months." Kono swallows and goes back to looking up the address Catherine gave her. 

"Six months as an officer," Catherine says, knocking Kono's shoulder with her own. "A whole lifetime as a badass."

Kono shakes her head, but she laughs too. She gives Catherine a bright smile as she picks up her phone and dials it. "Yeah, boss. Catherine got us a lead."

The way Kono takes Catherine's contribution seriously, and how quickly Steve agrees that the warehouse needs to be checked out, make Catherine feel proud. It's a far cry from how browbeaten her C.O. made her feel, and she can't help but bask in it a little.

She's Navy. She's been Navy practically since she was born, and never one to particularly need praise or shy away from harsh criticism. Still, Catherine has always been able to tell when the dressing-down she received was earned or not. This morning's tirade fell squarely in the "not" category, which only served to piss her off. It was always her plan to remain in the Navy through the years she has to dedicate to ASEP. Now she's beginning to question whether it might be wise to move on entirely.

Maybe once the dust settles after today's case, she'll talk to Steve about it and get his thoughts on the matter.

It's just, if Catherine _does_ leave the Navy, what would she do?

~*~

Steve watches as Chin holds up the infrared scope, counting heat sources inside the warehouse. "That's a lot of signatures," Steve says, watching carefully as the blobs of orange move through the purple space. "At least three guards. Many more civilians than the four we expected to find."

"They must've piggybacked onto another operation," Chin says. "At least to get the kids off the island. Who knows where they're planning on taking them after."

Fastening the last Velcro strap on his tac vest, Danny asks, "Can you actually tell it's the ASEP kids with that thing? What if they're not here?"

Steve can't bring himself to face the possibility that he might not actually find the missing kids. "It's the only lead we have. They've got to be here."

Danny gives Steve a look of warning, like he doesn't want Steve to get his hopes up. Steve rolls his eyes at Danny's pessimism. Until Steve learns otherwise, he's going to assume the missing kids are here. Danny can count them as losses all he wants. That's not how Steve operates.

The HPD SWAT team arrives, and after a brief consult with their captain, Steve leads his men and theirs to the warehouse. Steve keeps Danny and Chin by his sides, a few more SWAT officers behind them, and the rest covering the other exits. Steve is tempted to use a flash-bang, but there are too many civilians seated on the floor for it to be a safe move. 

"We're gonna have to do this fast," he tells Danny.

"Yeah," Danny replies, his face that mixture of determination and apprehension he always gets before a bust. "Go. I got you."

Steve gives Danny the biggest smile he can in about half a second, grateful that he can trust Danny to have his back. Always. 

With Chin pulling open the door, Steve makes entry quickly. He drops one gunman and then a second before the third can even raise his gun. One of the men behind Steve takes out the third guy, and Steve would bet twenty bucks it was Chin's bullet that did the job. 

The civilians, all women as far as Steve can tell, start to panic. They scream, and mostly Steve picks out Mandarin and Japanese, though there's a few other languages thrown in there. As SWAT sweeps the room for any further armed guards, Steve searches the crowd for the kids. 

"Steve!" calls Danny's voice from across the room, and Steve wonders how he got so far away. "Over here!"

Jogging in that direction (and dodging a few civilians), Steve quickly understands Danny's discovery. There's a woman next to him holding two toddlers, another with a baby in her arms, and a heavily pregnant woman on the ground. Danny's got both hands pressing on the woman's shoulder, blood welling up between his fingers.

Steve's calling dispatch for an ambulance before he even realizes what he's doing. As he moves closer and gets a look at the woman's face, he's relieved to see that she's the missing woman they came here for. The kids fit the descriptions of the missing children.

"Scene's all clear," the SWAT captain tells Steve. "We'll start counting and cataloging the others.

Steve nods, phone still to his ear as dispatch sends that ambulance. "Thanks, Captain. Oh, and see if you can figure out whose bullet hit her." He points to the injured women.

Steve knows that if an ASEP mother was hit by friendly fire, there's going to be hell to pay.

~*~

Danny's been sitting in the hospital waiting room for a good twenty minutes when Kono shows up. "How's she doing?"

"Still in surgery," Danny replies, knocking his knee against Kono's as she sits down next to him. "Abby's pressure dropped during the ambulance ride. They said it might have been low long enough to have affected the baby."

"Oh." Kono rubs a hand over her stomach, pressing her lips together tightly.

Clearing his throat, Danny puts his arm across the back of Kono's chair, offering some comfort if she wants to lean on him. "How's everyone else doing? The kids get back to their moms?"

"Yeah," Kono replies, leaning back against Danny's arm and looking at the ceiling. "Chin and I got them set up in a safe house for now. He's still with them."

Danny has to ask. "Steve?"

"The kidnapper that was still alive got brought to over to Tripler," Kono explains. "Steve and Jenna are there, waiting to interrogate him about his employers as soon as he's out of surgery." 

"He still seem freaked out to you?"

Kono shrugs. "No more or less than he has all day. Why?"

Danny checks his watch; it's almost midnight. After being on the go since before dawn, he feels a little like the gum he saw that teenager down the row stick under a table. Danny can't quite guess how Steve's handling the events of the day. On the one hand, he's a Navy SEAL, used to long days on little sleep and intense situations. On the other hand, it's been a case involving kids, and Steve's about to be a dad. Danny knows his ability to deal with kid-related cases changed when he found out about Grace. What if this is even worse on Steve because it's another ASEP family that was targeted?

Realizing he's been worrying about Steve almost exclusively, Danny turns his attention to Kono. "We should get you home," he says, drawing her closer with the arm that's around her shoulders. "You need your sleep."

"I'd rather be helping run down leads," Kono says, but her words are a lot less convincing after the yawn that escapes her.

As they walk to the parking structure, Danny remembers that he needs to call his parents and tell them about his new living situation. He does the math and decides it's still a little too early to call the east coast. Maybe after they get home, if he can work up the nerve. 

Danny takes the keys from Kono and gets in the driver's seat, adjusting the mirrors while Kono goes around the car and gets in. Just before he's about to start the car, Danny notices Kono giving him a _look_. "What?" he asks.

Kono raises an eyebrow. "You okay?"

"Hey, we got the bad guys," Danny says. "Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Cases with kids…" she says, trailing off like she doesn't want to say what's actually on the tip of her tongue. 

Danny starts the engine and turns the conversation around on her. "Are _you_ okay? You've got a lot in common with the victim here."

"Yeah, I know," Kono says. "As if I didn't feel vulnerable enough already." Looking out the window as they leave the parking garage, she scoffs. "I can't even bend over very well anymore, much less run for my life. It's only going to get worse, too."

Danny can't really imagine what that feels like, or how much worse it must be for a woman like Kono, who's used to being reckless out on the water. "Hey," he says, trying to give her a reassuring smile despite the dim lighting. "I've got your back, okay?"

"Okay," Kono replies. She lets the silence fall between them for a long moment before speaking again. "So, that call you got this morning? Seemed important."

Danny sighs. "The one from my brother, you mean?"

"Ooh, a brother!" Kono laughs, and it's almost like normal. "What's he like?"

Danny realizes changing the subject was Kono's way of _feeling_ more normal, so he goes along with it. "Oh, he's great. Doesn't know I've moved, but…"

"Why haven't you told him?" Kono asks, a tinge of disapproval in her voice. 

Danny knows he led Kono into the question, but he still finds himself sighing before he can answer it. "It's just… Look, when Rachel and I broke up, Matty was there for me. Spent every night at my place for _months_ making sure I got through it. He did all that for me, and then I turn around and get into this whole _thing_ with Steve, and Catherine. And _you_." Danny shakes his head. "I'm just not looking forward to the pity, is all."

After a moment, Kono says, "I know he's your brother, but it doesn't matter what he thinks, Danny. Are you happy?"

Shrugging, Danny pulls into the neighborhood he now calls home. "I think maybe I am. After the divorce, and then coming to terms with this relationship being different than what I'm used to, it's kind of hard to tell. You know?"

"Yeah," Kono says quietly. "I know."

Back at the compound, Danny says goodnight to Kono and heads over to his place. Everything is moved in, what little Danny was able to bring and store in his hell hole of an apartment. It doesn't even halfway fill up the space here. 

Danny sits on his bed, looking into his half-empty closet, and remembers he's here because he wants to be part of this family. He loves Steve. He recognizes that he's falling for Catherine. Danny loves Kono in more of a friendship sort of way, but more deeply than he'd like to admit. The thought of being here, of helping these people that he loves raise their kids—Danny _wants_ it. Desperately.

Maybe he _is_ happy. 

He picks up his phone. It's seven in the morning there. Not too early to call his mom, with the schedule she keeps. Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Danny lets it out slowly and selects the right contact from his phone. 

As it's ringing, Danny pictures disgust on his mother's face, and it makes him almost hang up. He knows if he does hang up, it's just going to worry her, so Danny steels his nerves and stays on the line. 

"Daniel?" His mother answers the phone, her voice a little sharper than its normal, soft tone. "What's going on, baby?"

"Hey, ma," Danny says, clearing his throat when the words get a little stuck. "Just got home from a case, thought I'd call."

"Oh," she says, her tone lilting upward happily. "It's good to hear your voice! Oh, and you are never going to believe who your sister went out with last night."

"Which sister?" Danny asks, knowing how much his mother is going to enjoy telling this story. He lets the words wash over him, and he still gets that pang in his chest, where he wishes he was sitting across from her at the breakfast table, stopping in for a cup of coffee between dropping Grace off at school and starting his shift. 

Eventually, Danny's mom finishes her story, and asks in the same breath, "So, what's new with you?"

Danny clears his throat again. Here it goes. "Well, um, actually I just moved."

"You _moved?/I >?" she asks with a delighted laugh. "Still in Hawaii, I take it?"_

Catching a bit of her infectious laugh, Danny chuckles. "Yeah. Still Honolulu, just a different neighborhood."

"Not too far from Grace's school, I hope."

"Closer, actually."

"Tell me everything about it," Danny's mother insists, and he has to smile at the support evident in her gesture. He hopes it doesn't evaporate when he says what he's about to say.

"You know my friend Steve?" Danny asks, though he's found himself unable to _stop_ mentioning Steve in his conversations with his mother. "The one in ASEP?"

"Of course."

"I moved into a little house in Steve's compound. Plenty of room for me and Grace," Danny assures her. "Security and everything."

Danny's mom gives a startled chuckle. "They just let you live on a military base like that?"

"It's not—" Danny was going to say it's not a military base, but technically the whole compound does belong to the army. He huffs and continues. "Officially, I'm allowed to live there because have a part-time job with the program."

Her voice tight, his mom asks, "What part-time job? You didn't leave the task force again, did you?"

"No, no. I'm still with Five-0," Danny assures her. "I'm just on the books with the army as a— Well, professional dad is the best way I can put it. You know, to help out when the babies arrive."

"Oh, I see," she says with a little laugh. She goes silent for a moment and Danny opens his mouth, but before he can break the silence, his mom points out, "You said 'officially.' What about unofficially?"

Danny tries to tell her, but what comes out of his mouth is, "Unofficially is complicated."

"Uncomplicate it for me," his mother says, in the same voice she used to use when insisting that yes, five-year-old Danny did have to take a bath every day.

Danny takes a deep breath and lets it out before confessing. "I'm seeing Steve. Have been seeing him. For awhile."

"Oh," she says simply, before following with a louder, "Oh! Daniel?"

Danny cringes. "Yes, Ma?"

"You've been seeing Steve...romantically?"

"Is that a problem?" Danny asks, not quite sure what he will do if her answer is affirmative. Steve is Steve, and he's where Danny has decided to lay his affections. But Danny's mom is his _mom_. 

"No, no!" she cries. "No, it's not a problem, sweetheart!" She clears her throat. "Except…"

Oh, here it comes. "Except for _what_?" Danny asks.

"Well, he's not exactly _single_ , is he?"

"He's not marri—"

"Oh, you know what I mean," his mom says, interrupting Danny. "He's having children with other people."

"Oh, believe me. I know." Danny huffs. "Look, Ma. You let me worry about that, alright? That's our business—mine and Steve's—to work out."

She sighs, but says, "Well, alright, sweetheart. You must be doing okay at it if you're moving in together."

"Yes, we are," Danny says, with the confidence he has on the good days. "And hey, you can tell Pop, if you'd like, but I want to tell Matty and the girls myself. Okay?"

"Okay. You know, Matty might be coming out to visit you in a couple weeks." His mom says this with a bit of an edge to her voice. "I told him to call and tell you, but you know how he laughs off my advice all the time."

Not wanting her to think it was Matt's call that got him to confess, Danny says, "Oh? You know, he left me a vague message earlier. I was going to call him back in the morning."

"Make sure that you do."

After saying his goodbyes, Danny hangs up and sighs. At least it's over with, and it didn't go too badly. He understands why his mother has concerns. Hell, they're the same concerns he had himself—the same concerns he still kind of has, to be honest.

Danny lays down in his bed and stares at the ceiling for five minutes before giving up. He shoves his feet into his flip-flops (which he refuses to call "slippahs") and heads up the path to Steve's place. The house is still empty, and so is the bed, but at least the bed smells like Steve. Danny crawls in, finds a part of the pillow that smells like Catherine's shampoo, too, and he swears to himself his mother is never going to know about the Catherine-too part of his and Steve's relationship. 

It takes Danny less than a minute to finally fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: awkward attempts at sex, off-screen kidnapping, injury to a pregnant minor character
> 
> If anyone's curious, [this is what Angelique looks like](http://68.media.tumblr.com/fbd98bda0dd6dc5de9d7a9048a8d6ed4/tumblr_inline_oa4fm8OC9b1rszavi_500.jpg).


	9. July-August 2011

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Matt Williams comes for a visit and Laura Hills is killed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings in the end notes, one skippable sex scene.
> 
> This chapter was kindly beta read by [la000viverl](https://la000viverl.tumblr.com/) and [freshwoods/Sarah](https://freshwoods.tumblr.com/). Thanks so much, you guys! Any remaining mistakes are mine.

"Oh, it's fine," Angelique says into the phone, responding to her mother's question. She reaches for the pillow at the other side of the couch, adjusting it. Personally, she detests the rusty color of the pillow, especially the way it's been paired with the drab gray couch, like it's helping anything. Angelique knows she could redecorate the space if she chose to do so, but honestly she hopes to be out of here within the year—moved closer to the nursery after her first baby has been born. To redecorate would be a waste of either taxpayer money, or her personal money, neither of which she's going to waste.

"What's that tone in your voice, baby?" her mother asks, voice both sympathetic and yet demanding an answer.

Angelique shrugs before tucking the phone between her ear and her shoulder, picking at the nails of one hand with the other. "I picked McGarrett because he's relatively new, not even a year out of the field, and because his first two partners got pregnant very quickly. I figured these traits would be a good balance between him having enough time to devote to my children and me getting out of here as quickly as possible."

"But?" her mother prompts.

Having trouble putting her thoughts into words, Angelique grunts in frustration. "But, I don't know! I don't know, Momma. He's not as professional as I was expecting."

With a knowing chuckle, her mother says, "He's not like your father, you mean."

"Not at all!" Angelique cries, standing up. She paces across the room, trying to burn off some restless energy. "He's got a dangerous day job! In his file, it's listed as a supervisory position, but the stories I've heard over the past week…" Angelique snorts. "Plus, his work partner lives here in the compound."

Clucking her tongue, Momma asks, "You mean they're gaming the system? Taking advantage of the ASEP-provided housing?"

"I think it's more than that."

"More? More what?"

Angelique has to admit, "I don't know. All I can tell is that he's very important to McGarrett. They're close."

"Oh," her mother says, this time her tone is knowing, like she's figured out the puzzle.

"What is it?" Angelique asks, desperate to know.

Making a negative sound, her mother says, "No. I don't want to color your perception of the situation. I'm probably wrong."

"You're probably wrong, and yet there's harm in telling me your theory?" Angelique scoffs. "Momma, c'mon! Just tell me!"

"You tell me how things go, alright, baby? I want to hear how you're doing."

Angelique knows a brush-off when she hears one. "Alright, Momma. I'll talk to you soon."

After getting off the phone with her mother, Angelique contemplates calling her friend, Dana, to ask what Momma meant about Williams. If anyone will know, it's Dana. Angelique looks at her watch and curses. It's still evening on the East Coast, but it's the middle of the night in The Med. 

Maybe Angelique can convince Dana to take her bonus sometime soon, and in Hawaii. It would be nice to have a friend here, especially since Angelique doubts that she's going to be able to break into whatever weird inner-circle (or "ohaha") that Steve has built around himself. In fact, she's certain she _doesn't_ want to break that barrier. After all, she's only planning on being here a few years. That's barely any time at all. 

So, really. What's the point?

~*~

"Are you sure this is all you have?" Jenna asks the HPD sergeant as they look down at two of the dozen or so case files on the table. "There's nothing else about Wo Fat? The Dragon? Yakuza?"

"I mean," the sergeant says, shuffling through the papers, "we have a lot of low-level Yakuza dealings in our records, but it's mostly the petty stuff. You know. Small drug deals. Graffiti. Everything else the oyabun keep off our radar."

Nothing here is like the human trafficking Jenna is sure Wo Fat has dragged the Yakuza into recently. Nothing about where Jenna might be able to find him. She _knows_ Wo Fat is on the island somewhere, and that he's her only shot at getting Josh back. She'll go door-to-door searching for Wo Fat if she has to.

It's looking more and more like Jenna might have to fall back on that plan. 

Jenna catches sight of a mug shot of one of the low-level Yakuza, and his tattoo intrigues her. She recognizes Chinese motifs within the tattoo, which her training has taught her are distinct from Japanese motifs. Why would Yakuza willingly mark themselves with imagery from another (oftentimes rival) country? It doesn't make any sense… _unless_ these tattoos signify loyalty to someone who is Chinese. Someone powerful enough to demand crossing patriotic lines. 

Someone like Wo Fat. 

The sergeant clears his throat loudly, drawing Jenna's attention. He nods toward the door, where a woman is standing. She's wearing an Army uniform and a stern expression. Once Jenna places the face, she knows she's in trouble.

"Oh, hi, um, Corporal," Jenna says, trying to put on a nonchalant expression. She's not quite sure what to do with her hands. "What are you doing here?"

"I think the better question," Corporal Whitesides says, sauntering into the room, her high heels clicking against the linoleum as she walks, "is what are _you_ doing here, Miss Kaye?"

"Um, helping?" Jenna suggests, cringing at the way it definitely doesn't work. 

"Mmm." The Corporal walks further into the room, pushing a few of the papers around before picking up one of the dossiers on a mid-level Yakuza enforcer. "This looks a lot more like helping yourself than anything else. Didn't care to heed my warnings, did you?"

Jenna's chest tightens around her racing heart. "No, I did!" she assures Whitesides. "I…" She catches sight of Sergeant Cho watching the conversation, and her embarrassment triples (something Jenna didn't realize was possible until it happened). She steps closer to the corporal and says in a low voice. "I've been _trying_ with Steve. I swear, I have!"

Whitesides levels a steady glare at Jenna and asks in a flat voice, "Is that right?"

"Yes!"

"It seems to me if you _were_ trying to do the job you've been contracted for, you wouldn't have time for this nonsense." Whitesides tosses the dossier back onto the table with the rest of the papers.

Incensed, Jenna straightens out the papers and insists, "It's not nonsense."

"Agent Kaye," Whitesides says, stepping closer and putting a warm hand on Jenna's shoulder, "is this some sort of cry for help?" Whitesides's eyes hold a sympathetic tilt, but her smile seems more predatory than compassionate to Jenna. "Do I need to save you from yourself? Transfer you to a different compound on the mainland? Back to the DC area, perhaps?"

Jenna can't go back to DC. Everything leading her to Wo Fat is here, in Hawaii. Not to mention the fact that DC was the city where she met Josh. It was their city, and Jenna's not going back without him. "No," Jenna says, shrugging off Whitesides' hand. "Hawaii is good for me. Steve and I are really starting to connect."

The look on Corporal Whitesides' face says that Jenna needs to be more convincing. She never was a very good liar. Best to go with the truth, then.

"Steve only has so much time, you know," Jenna says. "Between Catherine and Kono, and their babies, and Angelique, and his job, and …" Last-second Jenna realizes it would be a bad idea to throw Danny under the bus here. She finishes off her sentence with, "... his friends."

"Time management issues?" Whitesides says, clearly still not convinced.

"I'm not—" Jenna gives a huff as she tries to collect her thoughts. "It takes me awhile, okay? To get close to someone, to be able to trust them. I'll get there with Steve. I promise."

It's a promise Jenna's not quite sure she can keep, but then again, she'll do what needs to be done in order to get Josh back. If this is what needs to be done in order to ensure her access to information about Wo Fat, then Jenna's going to do it.

Jenna's speech seems to pacify the ASEP officer, as Corporal Whitesides gives Jenna a long look and then says, "I'm going to hold you to that promise." Whitesides nods at Cho, "Sergeant," and then leaves, the swagger in her walk almost victorious.

By the time Jenna gets back to the compound, her hands are still shaking. Sitting in her cabin, Jenna drinks tea despite the hot weather and stares at her case board. Neither activity calms the roiling pack of butterflies in her stomach. Jenna can handle some confrontations. After all, she never would have won her place in the CIA without some modicum of ambition. She's never been called out like this before, though, and she wonders how field agents grapple with the possibility of being found out.

A knock at her door makes Jenna jump, drawing her attention out of her own thoughts. She expects Steve, or maybe Catherine, to be at the door. Instead, it's Danny. She gives him a curious, if weary, "What?"

Danny raises his eyebrows, like he was expecting a warmer welcome, but Jenna just doesn't have it in her at the moment. He holds up a file and says, "Sergeant Cho wanted me to give this to you. He thought maybe it might be connected to our friend."

Jenna assumes that "our friend" is Wo Fat, because who else would Danny be talking about? She takes the file from Danny and opens it, pouring over this new dossier as she moves toward her case board. While Jenna did leave the door open, she didn't necessarily mean to invite Danny in, but he follows her nonetheless, closing the door behind him. "Cho thought this woman was involved with Wo Fat somehow?" she asks Danny, skimming through the details.

"Yeah," Danny says, touching one finger to the hula dancer statue Jenna placed on the end table near the door. "He said to look at the financial records in particular."

Flipping through the file, Jenna finds a few bank statements. Several payments to a Han-Soo Transport Company have been highlighted, and something about the name tugs at Jenna's memory. "This name is Korean," she says, setting down the new file and searching through the others for some mention of the company. 

As Jenna searches unsuccessfully, feeling Danny's eyes on her back, she thinks about how much this is going to cost her if Whitesides finds out she's doing more research in lieu of doing anything with Steve. It feels like she's walking a razor-thin tightrope between finding Wo Fat and maintaining her cover as a willing participant in the program. It's a difficult balancing act and Jenna feels herself slipping. Failing. 

There are very few things Jenna has failed at in her life, and this _can't_ be one of them. And why can't she find the damn file?

With a frustrated sob, Jenna drops the file onto her table and puts a hand to her forehead. This is a disaster!

"Hey," Danny says, stepping closer to Jenna and putting his hand on her shoulder. 

His touch reminds Jenna of Corporal Whitesides' visit, and she can't help but start crying in earnest. 

"Jenna? What is it? What's wrong?"

"It's all falling apart!" Jenna sinks down into the left-hand dining chair, hazarding a look at Danny and hating his concerned expression. "I won't be able to find Wo Fat in time!"

"Jenna, hey," Danny says, crouching down beside Jenna and putting a hand on her wrist. "In time for what? For your guy to still be alive?"

"That," Jenna says with a nod, "and before the ASEP officer sends me somewhere else because I avoided having sex with Steve for too long. Either that or indicts me for fraud." Sniffling, Jenna tries to wipe the tears from her face, but new ones flow too quickly to be free of them altogether. 

"Well, uh, that sucks," Danny says patting Jenna's wrist a few times. "What do you want to do about it?"

With a sniff, Jenna shrugs. "On the one hand, I could ignore her and hope we find Wo Fat before she sends me away." She wipes away a few more tears. "On the other hand, I attempt to actually do my job and do the deed."

Danny gives a soft chuckle. "You're making it sound like sleeping with Steve is this giant hardship."

Jenna knows that Danny's trying to reassure her, he's trying to insinuate that Steve is good in bed. She wishes it was just as simple as that. Meeting Danny's eyes, she confesses, "Just the thought of it makes me sick to my stomach."

Danny frowns. "Wait, really?"

"Why is that so surprising?" Jenna reaches for a napkin from the table and uses it to blow her nose. "He's not _that_ good looking."

Danny gives Jenna a long look before saying, "I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but—"

"Danny," Jenna says, cutting him off. She doesn't need him going on and on about Steve. What she needs is a solution to her problem. "It's emotional, okay? Steve is so _much_ like Josh, and I'm having a hard time handling the fact that he's _not_ Josh. I thought I could do this, but I tried and I got so caught up in my head, and—"

"Hey, hey. Whoa." Danny grasps Jenna's hands in his own, holding them still and together. "It's okay. It's just nerves, right?"

Jenna nods carefully. "Yeah, I guess so."

"It's not a moral objection? Or changing your mind? It's okay if you have changed your mind. You don't have to do this," he says, and Jenna could kiss him for how sweet he's being. 

Jenna shakes her head. "Except I do. And I want to." Okay, that's a little bit of a lie. Jenna wants the end result—being able to stay here in Hawaii and close to the source of information about Wo Fat. Sleeping with Steve is an unfortunate requirement of that goal. "I just...can't."

Shaking his head and looking away, Danny chuckles softly. "This, my friend, is why God invented alcohol. Silence that little voice in your head telling you not to do something."

Jenna laughs at the suggestion. She can't help it. "Alcohol? Really?"

"Yeah, sure!" Danny grins. "Alcohol has been known to lead to a number of possibly ill-advised sexual encounters. Lowers the inhibitions."

Danny does have a point. It might help Jenna to get out of her head, to stop comparing the present to the past and just be in the moment. "It could work."

Jenna stands up and heads for the bottle of vodka she has stashed at the back of the freezer. "I'm not big on drinking," she tells Danny, pulling out the mostly-full bottle. "Especially drinking _alone_ , but it's been a stressful few months."

"Hey, pour me one too and you won't be drinking alone," Danny says, taking the other chair at the table. 

Jenna doesn't have any shot glasses, so the little jam jar juice glasses she found at the farmer's market near Diamond Head will have to do. Sitting at the table, Jenna pours a splash of vodka into each of the two glasses and places one in front of Danny. She picks up her glass and holds it out for a toast. "Cheers."

" _Nostrovia_ ," Danny says, clinking his glass against Jenna's before downing the shot easily.

Usually Jenna sips her vodka, or mixes it into a cocktail. Today is not a day for such niceties. She throws the shot back and swallows it, wincing at the bite of the alcohol. "Is Steve even around tonight?" she asks, pouring more vodka into her glass, and then Danny's when he holds it out to her.

"I don't know," Danny says with a laugh. He takes the next shot and smacks his lips loudly as he sets the glass back on the table. "We could move this party to his place, catch him when he comes home."

Jenna's face is starting to feel warm as the alcohol spreads through her system. She thinks over Danny's idea, but shakes her head. "I wanna be here. My turf, you know?"

"Home field advantage. Smart." Danny picks up the bottle and pours himself another shot, this one not quite as big as the ones Jenna had poured.

Jenna watches him tip back the alcohol, and it occurs to her that he's had too much too fast to just be drinking in solidarity with her. There's something else going on, and Jenna might just be able to guess what it is. "Why are you helping me? Aren't you bothered by the fact that Steve and I have to…"

Danny laughs this tense sort of giggle, nodding as he pours yet another drink. "Am I bothered? Nooooo," he says sarcastically. He puts the drink up to his lips, but pulls it away again without drinking it. "So, why am I helping you?"

"Yeah. Why?" Jenna asks. 

"Because," he replies, setting the drink down and frowning at it. He rubs his thumb over the side of the glass, gathering the condensation that's already gathering because of the ice-cold vodka. "My presence here—my whole damn relationship with Steve—is conditional on me not _distracting_ him from you. Any of you." Danny shakes his head. "As soon as that officer gets word that I _am_ a distraction, I'm gone."

Jenna has seen the sort of man Steve is, and she can't help but ask, "And Steve would just let them end your relationship? Without fighting for it?"

"Oh, I have no doubt he would fight." Danny laughs again, and this time when he picks up the drink he takes it down. "He would fight, and he would lose. Probably get himself court martialed. Thrown in prison. And then what would happen to the kids?"

Nodding knowingly, Jenna says, "They wouldn't have their dad." " _Exactly_."

Jenna shakes her head. "I don't know how you do it. I couldn't imagine sharing Josh with anyone."

Danny shrugs, fiddling with his glass. "I mean, I went into the relationship knowing it couldn't be exclusive. It's a matter of expectations. If your expectations are low, it's damn easy to meet them."

Though she nods, Jenna thinks that sounds really sad. She reaches out and puts her hand over Danny's. "I'm sorry."

Danny gives Jenna half a smile and says, "It's a little bit easier when I'm in the room with them. Then I can see it's mostly a physical thing. Not emotional, you know?"

"So the stories Catherine tells are true!" Jenna feels her face heat up at the thought of what goes on behind closed doors. Yep, she's even more convinced she wants to avoid touching Steve's bed if at all possible. She knows everyone in the compound has been screened for diseases, but the number of people sharing Steve's bed (and having sex in it) still strikes her as unsanitary.

Danny's a little slumped in his chair, frowning as he points at Jenna. "What has Catherine told you, exactly?"

"And Kono, too, while I think of it," Jenna says. She gives Danny a look. "Have you been with the new girl yet? Angelique?" After the question is out of her mouth, it occurs to Jenna that she might be prying a bit much.

"Nah. Nah," Danny replies. "And I'm not holding much hope on that one. Very business-like, apparently. No muss, no fuss."

Even though her stomach is a little wobbly-feeling, Jenna pours herself another drink and wonders if she wants to be all business like Angelique, or more personal like Kono, or even Catherine. She takes the shot and tells Danny, "I tried to be professional with Steve, but it didn't work out."

"Is that why Steve was going on about how you didn't want to kiss him?" Danny asks, sitting back in his chair and putting his hands up behind his head. 

"He _told_ you about that?" Jenna's face burns with embarrassment. 

Danny gives Jenna a nod as he chuckles. 

"I guess I should have figured he would," Jenna says with a huff. As far as she's been able to observe, Steve and Danny share everything. Even bed partners. 

Jenna idly wonders what it would be like to let them share her. It sounds overwhelming, to be honest. She can't even take her clothes off in front of one man who isn't Josh. Two men is a definite non-starter. 

Unless…

It would be a lot easier not to compare Steve to Josh if there was a distraction to pull her focus. Jenna thought maybe she'd have to block out some of her senses to get it done—use headphones and a blindfold perhaps—but maybe there's another way. 

"Hey," she says, starting to feel loose-limbed from the alcohol. "What about me?"

Danny snorts with this amusement that makes Jenna think he's more drunk than he appears to be. "What about you?"

"Would you and Steve...with me?" she asks, her face hot and flushed again. 

Danny stares at Jenna blankly for so long that she starts to fear the alcohol has gotten to him and he's fallen asleep with his eyes open. Suddenly, he takes a sharp breath and says, "Oh! You mean sex!"

"Yeah," Jenna says, looking down into her drink. "Nevermind. It was a silly idea anyway."

"You think it would be better?" Danny asks, rolling his eyes. "More people in the room just means more complication. Sex is complicated enough as it is, you know?"

Jenna sighs. "Yeah. I know." She settles back in her chair. "I just think with someone else distracting me, I won't see the similarities between Steve and Josh so much. You know?"

"I do _not_ know," Danny says, and he's definitely looser-limbed than he was half an hour ago. "But what the hell? Why not?"

With a nervous laugh, Jenna pours the vodka again. "A-alright. What the hell? I'm in."

Danny looks at his watch, blinks at it a few times, and then says, "Steve should be getting back soon. Want me to head over to his place? Let him in on this little plan of ours?

Deciding to keep with the theme of the hour, Jenna throws up her hands. "Why not?"

"Alright." Danny stands up, takes a few steps away from the table, then turns back and grabs the bottle of vodka. He hands it to Jenna. "You might need more of this."

"No," she decides, setting the bottle down and pushing it away. "I don't want to get sick, despite how appealing the not-remembering bit sounds."

With a chuckle, Danny says, "Okay. I'll be back with Steve in a bit."

During the half an hour he's gone, Jenna starts to sober up. As she sobers, she becomes less and less sure of her decision. "This is crazy, right?" she asks herself, rearranging the pillows on her couch. 

"If you want to stay, you have to do this," she replies. "Do you want to stay?"

"The odds of finding Wo Fat go way down if I'm not here. He seems almost _interested_ in Steve. It would be stupid to give up that sort of advantage."

Jenna squares her shoulders with resolve. "Then be a grown up and get it done." She eyes the vodka on the table while assessing her balance by swaying from foot to foot. "Maybe just one more drink."

Jenna takes the bottle and pours some of the liquor into her mouth. She swallows about half of it before choking and sputtering the rest out. "Awkward," she mutters, wiping her chin with her sleeve.

Speaking of awkward, Jenna decides that she'd better get undressed ahead of time. She doesn't need anyone seeing her get stuck like last time. 

When she's down to her underwear and bra she thinks about staying that way, but she just can't do it. Jenna takes the bathrobe from where it hangs on the bathroom door and wraps it around herself. There. Ready.

Jenna's laying on her bed, watching the ceiling fan spin lazily, when there's a knock at her door. She doesn't really feel like getting up, so she calls out, "It's open!"

"Hey," calls Danny's voice. "It's us."

_Us_ means Danny and Steve. It means this is actually happening. Jenna looks over at the bottle on her nightstand and contemplates another sip, but the thought makes her a little queasy. No. It's all good like this. 

Jenna calls out, "I'm in here!"

And then Steve and Danny are at the door to her bedroom. "Hey," Steve says. He looks around for a moment and then asks, "How drunk are you? It smells like a bar in here."

"Hey!" Jenna says, sitting up so quickly it makes her a little dizzy. "I'll not have you malig– malang– talking _shit_ about my place!"

An amused grin leaps onto Steve's face and he reaches out for Jenna like she needs help staying upright. "Wow." He turns to Danny. "I know you said you two had been drinking, but…"

"It's fine," Jenna assures Steve, grabbing his arms and pulling him closer. "I'm fine. Everyone is fine."

Steve looks over his shoulder at Danny, which is good. That's something Josh never would have done. Josh didn't have a Danny. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"No!" Jenna insists, pulling Steve's face back toward her and kissing him. She notices that she can't really taste him all that well anymore. The alcohol must have dulled her senses. Perfect. "We're doing this. We're getting it over with!"

With a low chuckle that makes goosebumps raise up on the backs of Jenna's arms, Danny says, "I think maybe you should listen to the lady, Steven."

"Yeah, _Steven_ ," Jenna repeats. "Listen to the lady!"

Steve looks back and forth between the two of them before he finally relents. Shrugging, he says, "Okay…" and then reaches down to pull his shirt off.

Jenna reaches out to touch him, and can't seem to stop herself from saying, "You've got impressive musculature for a man your age."

Danny snorts, and Steve narrows his eyes at Danny briefly before giving Jenna a genuine, "Thanks."

"No, thank _you_ ," she replies, pulling him into another kiss. This isn't so bad. Jenna's not sure what she was so worried about before.

Skip the NC-17 part

Steve gasps against Jenna's mouth, which is confusing, until Jenna realizes that Danny's got his arms wrapped around Steve's waist and one hand down the front of his pants.

A thrill of desire and terror floats through Jenna, the alcohol making both sensations feel far away and unimportant. What is important is the mission!

Thinking of "the mission" makes Jenna's train of thought hop to "missionary position" and she can't help but chuckle as she reaches for Steve's fly.

"Something funny?" Steve murmurs.

Jenna shakes her head. "No, nothing," she insists, pushing Steve's pants off his hips. She can't bring herself to look down, so she keeps looking up at his very un-Josh-like chin. The feel of Steve's chest under her fingers is alluring, but overwhelming. She pulls her hands back. 

Jenna watches Danny pull Steve over into a kiss, fascinated by the image of Danny's hand on Steve's jaw. Steve's hand rests at the small of Jenna's back, and she feels held, rather than caged in. There's a vague urge to slip away, to let Steve and Danny be alone together; Jenna's certain the urge would be overwhelming if she were sober. 

Her thoughts are hazy as she lets Danny ease her robe from her shoulder. He places a kiss there and her skin tingles, like it wants to form goosebumps but can't quite manage it. Steve's kissing her again and Danny's fuzzy chest is pressed against her back, and _dear god_ it's been a long time since Jenna has had an orgasm. Steve's fingers barely brush along her dampening slit and up against her clit when she's shuddering, her breath caught in her lungs.

Gasping, Jenna pulls Steve close and tells him, "Do it." She knows it's now or never. 

Fortunately, Steve seems to understand. He hikes up Jenna's left thigh and sets it on his hip. They turn and suddenly, Jenna is on her bed, lying face-to-face with Steve, her leg still over his hip. He enters her decisively, but not fast enough to hurt. Jenna gasps again, the pleasure from her orgasm drawing out and sparking anew. 

Starting to feel overwhelmed, Jenna forces herself not to think about Josh. She focuses on the way Danny's arm is hooked around Steve's chest. Jenna listens as Danny murmurs against the back of Steve's neck, all gentle encouragements and praise. 

Maybe she could use a little encouragement and praise, too. 

This is…

This is exactly what Jenna promised she would do. Of course, she'd been cocky enough to think she'd find everything she needed before this had to happen. 

Steve gasps then, pulling Jenna close as he thrusts a few more times, erratically. His face softens and Jenna finds herself putting her hand on his cheek fondly. She thinks maybe it's okay that he's not Josh. Steve is a good man, and he's her friend. 

A little voice in her mind, that Jenna knows would be louder if not for the alcohol, points out that those are only justifications. It doesn't change the fact that she wishes there had been a way to get the information she needed without crossing this line. 

But it's done now, so there's no point in overthinking it. At least not until she's sober and inevitably starts over thinking it anyway. Jenna pats Steve's cheek again, and gives him a soft kiss as he pulls away. "Thanks," she says.

Steve gives Jenna a look, quickly licks his lips, and says, "You're welcome." He takes the boxer shorts Danny hands him and stands up to put them on. 

Jenna pulls one of the blankets over to cover herself, something that suddenly seems important, especially when she notices that Danny is still dressed. Sure, he's got bare feet and is down to his undershirt, but that counts as almost overdressed on this island. 

Steve sits on the end of the bed. "Do you want me–us," he says, glancing up at Danny before his eyes are back on Jenna, "to stay?"

Trying not to answer so quickly it might come off as offensive, Jenna says, "No, no. You don't need to stay. You can go."

"Are you sure?" Steve asks, and the tone in his voice makes Jenna feel self-conscious, like he knows something about Jenna that she doesn't know about herself. 

She pictures trying to entertain even just Steve for more than five minutes. Jenna is sure the topic of conversation would quickly veer toward Wo Fat and how to catch him. They don't need to be naked—or even partially naked—for that conversation to happen. 

"Yeah. I'm sure. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Steve blinks slowly, then nods. "Okay, Jenna. See you tomorrow."

As Steve walks through the door, Danny darts over to Jenna, giving her a kiss on the forehead and a quick half-hug. "You good?" he asks softly.

"Yeah, I promise," she replies, smiling as Danny kisses her forehead again before leaving the room with a funny little salute. 

After the front door closes behind them, Jenna contemplates just falling asleep, but ultimately decides she'd like to take a shower first. It's fine. Really, who _wants_ to put on clean pajamas without showering first, anyway? 

~*~

Danny fidgets with his phone while he waits in the airport terminal. Matty's flight has already landed, according to the arrivals board, and he's going to show up any second. When the phone buzzes in his hand, Danny almost drops it, fumbling to catch it before it falls. 

The buzz signifies a text from Steve:

_Good luck, Danno. Hang in there._

The message of support makes Danny smile, and by the time he looks up from his phone, Matty has already spotted him. Danny holds out his arms and cries out, "Hey, Williams!"

"Danny!" Matt calls out, his carry on in one arm, and the other thrown out wide. When he's in arm's reach, he drops his bag and wraps his arms around Danny. "How's it going, brother?"

"Oh, good, good," Danny says, returning the hug and clapping Matt on the back a few times before letting go. It's the first hug he's had from a family member since he left Jersey after Thanksgiving, and it's been entirely too long without. He and Matt exchange niceties about the flight, and Danny realizes he's putting off confessing about his current living situation. 

By the time they make it to the car, Danny knows he's got to let the cat out of the bag. As soon as they're cruising along H1 toward Matt's Waikiki hotel room, he clears his throat and says, "Hey, Matty. I've got some news I have to tell you."

"Yeah?" Matt turns in his seat, facing Danny, while Danny keeps his eyes on the road as best he can. 

Danny takes a deep breath. Here it goes. "I'm seeing someone," he admits. 

With a laugh, Matt says, "It's about time! _Please_ tell me she's some hot, Hawaiian surfer chick! Ooh, is Rachel jealous?"

The places Matt's mind goes with this information are completely predictable, which Danny finds more comforting than he figured he would. Now, like an asshole, he has to claw his way out of that comfortable place and tell Matt the truth. His mind races, imagining all the ways Matt could respond, up to and including just straight up shooting Danny in the head to put him out of his misery.

No. Danny has to do this. Matt is his brother. His _family_. Everything's going to be okay, if not today, then eventually. Danny clears his throat. "No. You know how I've talked about Steve?"

"Your boss? What, are you dating his sister? God damn it, D. You remember what happened with Frankie in high school when you went to homecoming with his sister." Matt chuckles and shakes his head, and Danny kind of wishes he _was_ dating Mary. At least it would be easier to explain.

"No, dipshit," Danny says with a frustrated huff. "I'm dating _Steve_. That's the news. Yeah, he's a guy. Yeah, it's serious. So just, you know, lay it on me. Okay?"

"Finally, he admits it!" Matt says, laughing.

Danny spends a moment flummoxed. This is not the reaction he was expecting. "What?" he asks, pulling his thoughts together just in time to change lanes so he can make the right exit.

"Have you forgotten Mark Smith? Your college roommate?" Matt's shifts gleefully in his seat.

Heart dropping into his stomach, Danny asks, "How do you know about him?"

"He was in my MBA program at Penn State. Talked a lot of shit while he was drunk, but he told some _pretty_ interesting stories. About you."

"And you've been sitting on those stories for ten years, have you?" Danny shakes his head in disbelief. "Nah, I think you're bluffing."

Matt leans closer and whispers, "Spring break, 1996."

Danny's face goes hot at the memory of getting caught by the hotel concierge with Mark—pants down behind the hotel bar at four in the morning. "Yeah, okay. Maybe you aren't bluffing."

"Nope!" Laughing again, Matty claps Danny on the shoulder. "But, hey. I'm happy for you, bro!"

"Thank you."

"Now we can just drop off my stuff at the hotel, go pick up my favorite niece, and then meet this boyfriend of yours!" Matt laughs again, like this is the best thing he's heard in a long time. Danny might be annoyed if he wasn't so relieved. "Oh, and hey, I wanna see your place! I'll bet it's ten times more awesome than any apartment you could find in Newark. There's no way it could be the rat trap you've been describing. You live in freaking _Hawaii_ , Danny!"

Danny winces. "Yeah, about that. I might have moved recently."

"Moved where?" 

Danny figures he's been brave enough for one hour. He'll put off revealing the rest of the story until later. "How 'bout you'll see when we get there?"

"Fair enough." Matt nods agreeably, staring out the window as they drive by Ala Moana park. "Wow. Ooh!" He points at a group of people as they pass by. "Bikinis! I gotta say, I'm enjoying the fact that now that you're gay, there's more for me!"

"Okay, _one_ ," Danny starts, "not too long from now it's gonna be Grace in something like that, so learn some respect, asshole." He makes sure Matty knows the insult is friendly by smiling as he smacks Matt with the back of his hand.

Matt laughs. "Yeah, alright. Alright."

"And, _two_ , I might be off the market, but I'm not gay. I'm bi."

Scoffing like he doesn't quite believe Danny, Matt says, "Oh, yeah. Sure."

Danny almost lets slip about having been with Catherine more than a few times in recent weeks, but that seems like it would be crude bragging at Catherine's expense. He bites his tongue and pulls up to the Hilton. "Here we are."

~*~

Steve sits in the offered seat across from the Governor and says, "Thank you for seeing me, ma'am."

"Please tell me you have a lead on whoever was behind Lieutenant Redding's death," she demands, looking absolutely sincere like she doesn't have a direct line to the people involved.

Her false sincerity makes Steve even more sure of the plan he's concocted to force the situation to some sort of head. "Yes," he says, leaning forward. "We've discovered that the kidnappers are part of the Chinese Triads. The same people who were involved in bringing Victor Hesse onto the island. When we took down their leader here on the island—Sang Min—someone else stepped up to take his place."

Her brows furrowed, which Steve thinks looks an awful lot like she's passing off confusion as concern, Governor Jameson asks, "Who is it?"

"We don't know his real name," Steve tells Jameson, "but he's known as The Dragon. Our intel indicates that he's been moving up within the Triads for some time. He might actually be the man at the top."

Something flashes over Jameson's face, like she's aware Steve is lying. The Dragon has very little to do with the Triads, and everything to do with the Yakuza. However, she can't correct Steve without revealing she knows more about the Yakuza than she's supposed to. Her face suddenly calm, with just a hint of almost-motherly concern, Jameson asks, "How close are we to finding this Dragon?"

"Oh, close," Steve assures her, even though all they have is his name, not his location. "Very, very close."

There's the slightest hesitation before Jameson says, "Good! Good. I'll be looking forward to hearing more about your progress with the case." She raises her hand toward the door, dismissing Steve.

"Yes, ma'am," he replies, as if eager to show her what he can do.

Oh, she'll be surprised by what Steve is capable of. He'll see to that.

~*~

"Here we are," Danny says, pulling up to the gate. He waves at PFC Laskin and then tells Matt, "You're gonna have to show this nice officer your ID."

"My ID? Why?" Matt asks, though he's already reaching into his pocket for his wallet. "What is this place, Danny?"

"Just gimme your ID," Danny replies, taking it when Matt hands it over and giving it to Laskin, who returns to his booth with a "thank you, sir".

"Danny?"

Danny sighs. There's no more putting this off. He has to come clean. "It's an ASEP compound. I live on an ASEP compound."

"Why?" Matt asks, frowning at Danny with confusion. " _How_? I thought only ASEP guys and their families lived in these compounds." He gasps. "Did ASEP _recruit_ you? You've never been in the military!"

"I live here because I work here," Danny says as Laskin comes back to return Matt's ID and wave them through the gate.

"But–"

"Part time," Danny amends, pulling through the gate and into his parking spot under the carport. "I'm still with Five-0."

"Then why…"

Jesus, it's like Matt can't put two and two together suddenly. "Because I'm seeing Steve! This is his place, alright? He's the ASEP guy, not me. I gotta work here part time so I can keep dating him."

"You…"

Before Matt can elaborate on his fish-out-of-water impression, Danny gets out of the car. He leans back down and says, "C'mon. Let me show you my place."

Danny walks away from the car, slow enough to allow Matt to catch up. Only, he doesn't. Instead, he calls from twenty feet back, "No, Danny!"

Turning around, Danny is surprised to see disgust twisting Matt's expression. Danny knew this whole thing wouldn't be an easy sell, but he'd expected discomfort, maybe even worry, but not _disgust_. Praying that he's misjudged the expression, even though he knows Matt's face better than almost anyone else's, Danny asks, "No? No to what?"

"No to _this_ ," Matty cries, spreading his arms out to indicate the compound around them. "What the hell? You used to hate this shit, and now you're living _here_? Come on, man!"

It's so easy to hate his brother in that moment, because Matt is right. As teenagers, Danny and Matt used to hang out with these twins that were in Matt's grade—Annie and Aaron Calhoun. They'd known it was coming, but at the end of the summer between Danny's junior and senior years, both of them left for D.C., shipped off to the ASEP school. Matt had been _in love_ with Annie, despite everyone, Annie especially, telling him it would never work out. The twins had a different purpose in life, no matter how much anyone might have wished otherwise. That October, on Mischief Night, he and Matt egged the ASEP apartment building where the twins used to live. It had been cathartic at the time, if ultimately unproductive. 

Danny still hates the fact that the McGarrett ASEP compound exists. He could never hate Catherine or Kono, or even Jenna or Angelique, but he hates what they're doing in the name of doing something good for their country, or because they needed the money, or because they needed to be close to Steve's investigation. What he hates most is the fact that Steve's kids aren't going to have a choice when it comes to joining the military.

"I know," Danny tells his brother. "Okay? I know. And I _tried_ to walk away, but I'm in love." He shrugs. "I'm in love."

Matt nods slowly, and Danny thinks maybe he's starting to come around. "Okay, Daniel. You're in love."

"Thank you."

Matt points a finger at Danny. "But see if I spend one _minute_ holding your hand, talking you through your shit _again_ when this blows up in your face!" He chuckles angrily. "I told you Rachel wasn't right for you, and I'm telling you now: you deserve better than _this_!" He waves his hands at the compound surrounding them.

"What if I don't, huh?" Danny asks. "What if this is the best it's ever going to get for me? Wouldn't I be stupid to throw it away?"

Behind Matt, the gate opens and Steve's truck starts rolling into the drive. Steve hangs out the open window of his truck and calls, "Hey! This must be Matt! I'll park and come say hello!" Danny notices that Steve's wearing his suit coat, which means he's just coming from his meeting with the governor.

"No," Matt says, pointing at Steve. "Fuck you." He points to Danny, fury and deep disappointment on his face. "And fuck you. Call me when you realize I'm right."

With that, Matt heads back out the open gate on foot, like he's not miles deep into the suburban neighborhood surrounding the compound.

Danny calls after him, "Wait! At least let me drive you back to your hotel! Matt!" He keeps walking away. "Matty!"

Matt throws his middle finger up without looking back and disappears through the still-open gate.

Steve asks, "What was that?"

With a frustrated huff, Danny pulls out his phone and calls the guard booth. "Hey, it's Danny. Will you make sure my brother gets a cab back into town?"

"Yes, sir," the guard says, so Danny hangs up, hoping that all will go well and Matt won't try to walk back to Waikiki and get run over in the process.

Still hanging out the window of his truck, Steve asks, "Danny?"

Danny's still processing what just happened. Of all the things he thought Matt might get on his case for about seeing Steve, Danny thought the ASEP portion of the equation was going to be the least important. Now who knows how long Matt is going to stay angry with him. It can't be forever, right? There's just no way Danny can contemplate having to choose between his brother and _Steve_.

Danny looks up at Steve, shakes his head, and says, "I'm gonna need a few minutes. Maybe an hour. Or a year."

Squinting out at the distance as he nods, Steve says, "Yeah, okay." He presses his lips together, and then gestures to Danny. "I got a Mets game recorded, if you want."

Unable to help the slight smile that crosses his lips at Steve knowing exactly how to take care of him, Danny nods. "Thanks, babe."

~*~

Catherine finishes pulling the last weed from this section of the flower bed, and sits back on her heels. She wipes the sweat from her forehead and reaches for her bottle of ice water, sipping it carefully. Footsteps draw her attention down the pathway, where Steve is approaching. 

"Hey," he says, stopping and crouching down beside her. "It's eighty degrees out. You sure you should be doing this?"

"Better than doing nothing productive," she says, rubbing her belly and taking another sip of water. "I don't do boredom well."

Steve laughs and reaches forward, tucking a strand of sweaty hair behind Catherine's ear. 

"Is everything okay?" Steve asks, spending so long watching Catherine's face that it starts to make her feel self-conscious. 

Really, she should be happy he's concerned for her. Steve has so much going on in his life, and all Catherine has is _this_. Being pregnant and gardening. That's it for the next month or so. And then all she's going to have is being a mom to a kid that some very powerful people are going to want to take from her. 

"I don't know," she tells Steve. "I just keep thinking about waking up one morning to find our son has been stolen."

"That's not going to happen," Steve insists. "If I have to, I will guard his crib every night. Armed."

Catherine rolls her eyes. "As superhuman as you like to think you are, I know you need sleep like the rest of us."

Steve gives a half-shrug in agreement. "We'll take shifts. Except for Jenna, all of us are trained military or police officers. It'll be fine."

From behind Catherine, a voice says, "I'm an excellent shot, if that eases your mind at all."

Catherine turns to see the newest member of the household, Angelique, standing on the pathway. "Is that right?"

"If you don't believe me," she says with a friendly smile, "I have three or four marksmanship trophies I could introduce you to."

Catherine can't help but laugh. She tells Steve, "There we go. We put Angelique and Kono up high as snipers. You, me, and Danny on the ground. Simple." Catherine rolls her eyes, but she lets Steve pull her to her feet. 

"I've never known you to shy away from a risk," he says, squeezing her hand.

Catherine takes a deep breath and lets it out. "I guess I've never been a mom before. It's making me anxious."

Steve wraps his arms around Catherine. "Yeah."

Catherine suspects "yeah" is Steve's version of "I'm feeling the same way" but his choice of words leaves something to be desired. She returns the hug until Angelique clears her throat. 

Catherine and Steve both look at her, and she says, "Steve? May I have a moment to compare our schedules?"

Steve looks at Catherine kind of like he wants her to help him get out of such a meeting, but that's so not Catherine's job. She gives Steve a blank look in response. 

Narrowing his eyes at Catherine, Steve tells Angelique. "Yeah, sure. I've got some time now."

Catherine watches the two of them walk away together, and smirks when she imagines them having the most stilted, robotic sex ever. 

She looks down at her gardening, which is now done, and wonders what the hell she's supposed to do next. Perhaps learning as much as she can about home security would be a good use of her time. After all, once she knows where the weaknesses are in the system, she'll know just how anxious she should be.

~*~

Steve knocks on Angelique's door precisely at the agreed-upon time. He shifts the bouquet of flowers he's holding from one hand to the other and tries not to fidget as he waits. Thankfully, the door opens a few seconds later. 

Angelique has her straightened hair down, flowing past her silk-covered shoulders. She's wearing a short maroon robe, cinched at the waist, and nothing else as far as Steve can see. Steve thinks she might be flushed, but it's hard to tell with her skin tone. 

Abruptly, she says, "I'm allergic to flowers, Commander."

It takes Steve half a second to realize she's talking about the bouquet in his hand. He looks at it dumbly for a second before he finds the words to respond. "Uh, right. Okay. Sorry. Let me just…" 

Steve sets the flowers next to the walkway, the stems angled toward the dirt there, like that's going to help anything. 

"Come in, Commander," Angelique says, and Steve bristles at her continued use of his rank, rather than his name. She turns and steps into the cabin, gesturing him to follow. 

"Please, call me Steve. I know you want to maintain some distance, but we're making a family together, Angelique." He takes a few steps, noticing that she hasn't done anything to personalize the place. Everything is minimal and neat, the only splashes of color the yellow-and-blue curtains that Gayle had put in when they thought his dad might be getting another partner. Steve remembers having to go along with Gayle and Malia to pick them out, because it was on the way home from football practice.

It annoys him that Angelique would come into the home his family built over the last 35 years, and treat it like barracks. Or worse, like a hotel—extremely temporary.

"Okay, Steve," she says, walking through the main room toward the bedroom. 

Steve pauses to close the door behind him, and then wonders if he's meant to follow. 

"Come here, please," Angelique says, which answers that question. 

As Steve turns the corner into the room, he sees Angelique sitting on the bed, naked except for the sleeves of her robe still around her arms. "Oh!" he cries, turning away before he realizes he's supposed to see her naked. He chuckles nervously and stammers, "Y-you're ready to do this, I see." He makes himself look at her, reminding himself this is his job, his duty. 

With a shrug and a wry smile, Angelique says, "There's no point in drawing this out, is there?"

"No, I suppose there isn't." Steve pulls off his shirt, and for the first time since coming home, he actually feels "put out to stud".

"I'm ready when you are." Angelique opens her arms, and Steve stifles a sigh as he goes to her. 

He really hopes she doesn't mind if he pictures someone else while he's with her. 

~*~

"Howzit?" Chin asks as he enters Kono's office at HQ, a tray of coffees in his hand. He sets them down in front of Kono and pulls out the decaf one, handing it to her. "Any word from Steve on the project he and Jenna are running?"

"Not yet," Kono says, taking a long sip of the coffee, even though it's still almost scalding-hot. "We put out the word about the kidnappers being charged by the A.G., but so far, none of them have gotten any legal support. Public defenders across the board."

"You'd think the Yakuza would take care of their own," Chin says, turning the tray of coffees until he finds the one he ordered for himself. 

"Maybe Wo Fat knows we're trying to find him," Kono suggests. "We did take down his ally, Noshimuri. It could have spooked him."

"Somehow, I don't think 'The Dragon' is the kind of guy that gets spooked." Chin shakes his head and takes the lid off his coffee so it can start to cool. "I'm not sure Steve's plan to goad the Governor into revealing anything is going to work, either."

Kono makes a noncommittal noise and takes another sip of her coffee. "What I don't get is, if the governor is working with the Yakuza, and the Yakuza are the ones who wanted to sell ASEP kids overseas, why would she put us on the case?"

Chin bobs his head back and forth while he thinks, eventually saying, "I suppose ASEP is a generally popular program, as odd as that is to say. People like thinking we've invested in having the best soldiers in the world. If she hadn't put us on the case, people would've been upset."

"Maybe she never thought we would be successful," Kono adds. "Without Catherine's help, we might not have been. Those kids were just hours from being smuggled off the island." She looks down at her belly, rubbing her hand over it protectively.

It occurs to Chin that he hasn't had an update on Abigail Turner in a few days. Kono would probably know how she's doing, so he asks.

"Good," Kono tells him. "Abby's expected to make a full recovery. They won't know about the baby until after it's born."

"If he is damaged," Chin says, "the DoD is going to come down on island security. _Hard_. Five-0 might end up in the political crossfire."

"All the more reason for us to solve this case quickly," Kono says. She shifts in her seat and reaches for a stack of papers, lining them up. "If we can prove how far up the chain this thing goes, we can make a case for the state keeping us around, even after the governor goes down."

Chin hasn't seen Kono this nervous since before her first statewide surfing competition. What he can't tell now is whether she's nervous about the future of Five-0, or nervous about _her_ future. And her child's future.

Maybe there's something he can do to help.

"Look," he says, leaning across Kono's desk and putting his hand on hers the way he always has whenever she's needed calming down. "The McGarrett compound is secure, but it is a target. Why don't you come stay with me and Malia for a little while? We don't have high walls and armed guards, but we've got an alarm and an extra room."

Giving him a soft smile, Kono appears to think over Chin's proposal. After a moment, just when Chin thinks she's going to accept, Kono shakes her head. "Thanks for the offer, cuz, but I can't. You're ohana, but Steve and the others are now, too. I can't just abandon them because it might be a little bit safer hiding out at your place."

"Well," Chin says, giving Kono's hand one last pat. "I can't say I'm not disappointed, but ohana is ohana, Kono. And I respect that."

"Even if it looks a lot different from the family we grew up in?" she asks, some surprising insecurity in her voice.

"Even then," Chin assures her. As he leaves Kono's office to distribute the other coffees to Steve and Danny, Chin vows to himself that he's going to do everything in his power to make sure Kono feels powerful again -- like she did when she was a champion surfer. He's a little unsure of how to do that, but he has a suspicion that guiding her through how to investigate this case and _solve_ it might be a step in the right direction.

~*~

"Hi, son," John says as Steve approaches him in the coffee house. John stands up from the booth he's sitting at and gives Steve a hug. "Thanks for meeting me."

"Sure thing, Dad," Steve insists, sitting across from his father. "What's going on?"

John takes a Manila envelope from the seat beside him and places it on the table. "Well, there's this."

Steve takes the envelope and opens it, finding the postcards that had been stolen from his house. "Another piece of evidence."

"Not just that," John says, placing a photo face down on the table. He slides it toward Steve, but keeps his hand over it as he says, "there was a security camera pointed at my car when the envelope was dropped off."

"You know who it is?"

John shrugs, saying, "I got a picture, at least. I wondered if maybe you could run it through that fancy facial recognition thing you've got." He finishes sliding the picture toward Steve.

Steve picks up the picture and turns it over. It's printed from a grainy surveillance recording, but the anonymous helper's face is in full view. She's a woman, with long, dark hair, and…

"Wait. I know who this is."

John frowns and leans forward, looking at the photo. "You do?"

"This is Laura Hills," Steve tells John. "She's the governor's assistant."

He squints at the picture. "My god, it is! What the hell is she doing with the evidence from my investigation?"

"I'm not sure," Steve says, squinting at the picture like if he does the face is going to change into someone he doesn't know. It would be easier if the person wasn't connected to the governor. And then it occurs to Steve that the governor is connected to Hiro Noshimuri, who stole the evidence in the first place. Steve sighs and turns the photo over. "The governor must have it. Laura found out, obviously didn't approve of whatever the governor is into, and started giving you back the evidence, piece by piece. Trying to help."

"She'd be more help if she'd brought everything at once to the Feds," John insists.

Shaking his head, Steve leans forward, keeping his voice low. "No, you were right about there being dirty cops in HPD. Who's to say none of the local FBI agents are on the take, too? Moving everything at once was too risky." He sighs, thinking for a moment before continuing. "If Laura started sending a piece at a time, it's doubtful the governor would notice. It would have kept her from being found out."

"The amount of evidence we have now, though," John says, wrapping his hands around his coffee cup and sighing. "Someone' going to notice, and soon."

"Which means we have to find out where the rest of the evidence is being kept, and get both it and Miss Hills to safety. Sooner rather than later on both accounts." Steve takes his phone out of his pocket and stands up out of the booth. "Thank you for bringing me this, Dad."

"Son," John says, standing up out of the booth and putting a hand on Steve's shoulder. "You get these bastards, but you be careful, okay? People are counting on you not to get killed. _I'm_ counting on you not to get killed."

Soberly, Steve nods. "Okay, Dad. Okay."

On the way back to his truck, Steve texts everyone, urging them to get to HQ as early as they can that morning. There's work to do. 

~*~

"What's the big emergency?" Chin asks as he enters Steve's office. He's the first one to arrive, Danny and Kono still on their way from the compound.

"Laura Hills is the one who's been helping us get the evidence back," Steve tells him, copying a number from his phone onto a piece of paper. "I need you to tell me where she is right now."

Chin frowns as he takes the paper. "Laura Hills? The Governor's assistant? That means--"

"That the governor is involved," Steve says. "Yeah. And it's not just that she's friends with a 'businessman' who happens to run one of the largest crime syndicates on the island. Her assistant has access to evidence stolen from _my house_."

"This is big, Steve," Chin says as he leaves the office, headed for the computer table in the middle of HQ. 

Steve can't stand sitting here at his desk any longer, so he follows Chin out to watch him put a trace on Miss Hills' phone. "Governor Jameson is involved, Chin. She's involved with the break in at my place. She could be involved with the Redding murders and kidnappings. We need to bring her down."

"We're going to need proof," Chin insists. "Damn good proof."

"That's why we need to find Laura." 

Hitting a few more buttons, Chin swipes something up onto the monitor. "There. She's right outside the palace."

"Just pulling in for the morning?" Steve guesses out loud. Heading toward the doors, Steve calls over his shoulder, "C'mon. We need to grab her and get her somewhere safe."

"And how are we going to do that without the governor noticing?" Chin asks, following Steve through the building.

"We convince Laura to call in sick or something," Steve says, his eyes half on where he's going and half on his phone. Jackson Travers, from back in Steve's Annapolis days, is with the FBI out of D.C. He'll know how to put Steve in contact with the right people to bring down a governor. 

Steve has just gotten to the stairs when the floor rocks beneath him, a heavy wave of sound making his head throb. It reminds Steve instantly of Afghanistan and he finds himself crouched defensively out of reflex. "That was a bomb," Steve calls over his shoulder to Chin. "And it was close."

"Right outside," Chin agrees in a loud voice, like he's lost the ability to hear himself. 

Steve runs toward the stairs that lead to the front door, bursting through the crowd gathered in the entrance. They're all looking at the burnt-out remains of a car in the parking lot. Steve looks around for Laura, who should be out here, according to her phone's GPS. He doesn't see her. 

Instead. Steve notices Duke finishing a request for fire support over his radio. He asks, "What happened?"

"Car bomb," Duke replies sadly. "We think someone was in it."

"That's Laura's car," Chin says in Steve's ear. "That's her spot, anyway. And the make of car is right."

One of the workers clustered around is holding a hand to her face, crying. Steve approaches her and asks gently, "Did you see who was in the car?"

The worker nods, a small sob escaping her.

"Who was it?"

"Laura," she says, shaking her head. "She had just turned off her car when…"

Steve takes a few steps and ends up on the woman's other side as he surveys the damage. It reminds him too much of the car bomb from '95.

Looking back at the woman, he realizes her suit coat is stained dark just under her ribs on the right side. Yeah, that's definitely blood. "Ma'am?" he says, sending a look to Chin and getting ready to catch her if she starts to faint. "Ma'am, I think you're injured."

"I…" she starts, but then she hisses in pain and puts a hand to her bloody side. "Oh! I think maybe you're right."

"Duke!" Steve calls, and when the Sergeant comes over, he passes the woman to him. "Make sure the EMTs see her. Soon."

Steve wishes he could stay with her, but right now, he needs evidence. "You stay here and watch the crime lab process the scene," he tells Chin. "Don't let them get away with _anything_. Understand?"

"Got it," Chin says with a nod. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm gonna get Danny and Kono. We're going over every inch of Laura Hills's house. Right now."

Steve turns back toward the building, only to see the Governor and her security team approaching from the other direction. The governor is wild-eyed as she approaches, putting a hand on Steve's arm. "They're telling me it was Laura! Was it her?"

She looks genuinely distraught, which surprises Steve. He could have sworn it was Jameson who would have ordered the hit. "Um, I'm afraid so, ma'am. Or, it was her car, at least. And there was a witness. We'll have to get Max's report back before we're sure, but…"

Jameson cries out in apparent anguish. Either she really didn't know that Laura was to be killed, or she's one hell of an actress. 

Steve looks the governor in the eye and says, "We're going to find out who did this. We're going to get justice for her."

Jameson nods, but there's something a little dangerous again behind her eyes. "Get to it."

"Yes, ma'am."

~*~

Jenna's about a mile into her run on the treadmill Steve keeps on his lanai when the man himself calls her. 

"I need you to come to HQ and look at some pictures," he says, his voice tense, like he's stressed out about something. 

Short of breath, Jenna pants as she asks, "What kind of pictures?"

"There was a bombing down here today. A car bomb. I need your expertise."

Jenna's heart drops into her stomach. "Was someone in the car?"

"Just–just come look at the pictures," he says, and he sounds upset, but not so upset that someone close to him has been killed. Then again, Jenna hasn't really interacted with Steve this soon after he's lost someone. Maybe he's really good at keeping his voice steady during a crisis. That's a military trait, right?

"I'll be right there."

It takes a while to get to the building, since there's emergency vehicles and police all around the it. She's almost there when a police officer stops her. "I'm sorry, ma'am. You can't go any further."

"But, I'm working with Five-0," she tries to explain, wishing she still had her CIA badge and ID. "Steve McGarrett himself called me down here."

"Uh-huh," the officer says. "Please stay behind the li--"

"Hey. Hey, she's with me," says Kono from behind the line, reaching for Jenna. "Come on."

"Thanks," Jenna says, noticing a break in the ring of crime scene techs. The wreck beyond is horrifying when she gets a glimpse of it, and she can't help but put a hand to her mouth. "Oh my god!"

"Yeah," Kono says, ushering Jenna toward the building. In a low voice, she explains what's going on. The governor's assistant has been killed after stealing previously-stolen evidence and returning it to John McGarrett.

"So, car bomb," Jenna says as they enter the Five-0 offices. The car side of the office has glass littered on the floor where several of the windows got blasted in. "I assume we're thinking Wo Fat."

"You tell us," Kono replies, gesturing to the computer table and the photographs open all over the desktop. 

Jenna spends a few minutes studying the pictures, noting the direction of the blast based on which way the metal of the frame has peeled away. The pitting tells her that ball bearings were used as shrapnel, and they only traveled in one direction. "This was a claymore mine," Jenna says out loud. "Directed at the driver."

"You know what this reminds me of?" Kono asks, sorting through some of the pictures, and then opening another folder. The next pictures she opens are obviously older, based on the quality of lens used to take them and the model of car that's been destroyed. 

Jenna recognizes the pictures. "The car bomb outside the McGarrett compound."

"Yeah."

"Yeah," Jenna replies, her stomach twisting into a knot. "It really, really does."

~*~

"Okay," Steve says, looking over at the door to HQ, where Danny sees Catherine standing. "We have an appointment. Danny, Chin. Can you two go check out this surplus store guy? Get him to tell you who he sold the Claymore to?"

"Sure thing," Danny replies, practically shoving Steve out of the building. "Go, go! Go figure out if that kid's ready to be born yet. We'll take care of it."

"Good luck," Chin calls after Steve as he reaches Catherine and they both wave. Turning back to Danny, Chin says, "She's got to be getting close, right?"

"Yeah," Danny says, trying to remember the talk around the house lately. "Full term this week, I think."

"We'd better finish this case for him then, huh?" Chin asks, reaching for the folder with the info on the guy who might have been involved in the thefts explosives from the Army. 

Except, when they get there, and Danny has to mace the guy to get him to drop his freaking sword, he insists he sold the claymore to a guy named Steve McGarrett.

Outside, while Duke is loading their weapons dealer into the back of a squad car, Chin asks, "He can't be telling the truth, can he? Steve wouldn't buy stolen weapons."

"No." Danny puts his hands on his hips and bites his lower lip as he thinks. "Someone put him up to it."

"Think he'll tell us who?" 

Danny's not sure if this guy will talk or not. It all depends on how loyal to, or scared of, the man in charge he is. 

If Jenna's right, and the Claymore sold was used in a bomb made by Wo Fat, the guy might be too scared to give up his buyer. 

Eventually, Danny just has to sigh and say, "Enough evidence points to Wo Fat. We won't need this guy to talk."

~*~

Kono watches Danny and Chin get back to HQ, and she knows she has to tell them about the call she just received. She's just not quite sure how what words to use. 

"Hey," Danny says, tapping Kono's elbow in greeting. "What's up? What's going on?"

Kono guesses she'd better just out and say it. "The crime scene techs finished processing Laura Hills' house. Charlie got a match on some of the fingerprints."

"Yakuza?" Chin asks, jumping to the most obvious conclusion.

Kono has to shake her head. "No. They're McGarrett's."

"Steve's?" Danny asks, frowning at Kono, then at Chin. "But that doesn't make any sense. When we went over there to check the place out, we all wore gloves."

"I know that," Kono replies. "And I could swear I didn't see him touch anything with his bare hands."

"Could he have been there before today?" Chin asks.

Danny shakes his head. "When? How? One of us is almost always with him." 

"Still, I don't like this," Kono tells them, a prickly feeling under her skin. "First we've got a guy who says Steve bought the murder weapon from him, then we find Steve's prints at the crime scene?"

"He's being set up," Danny insists. "It's Wo Fat. We're getting too close, so he's setting Steve up."

"Yeah, but where's our proof?" Chin asks, sighing as he leans against the table. "All we have is a witness who recanted his original statement when we got in his face."

A growing sense of dread has Kono gripping the edge of the table so tightly her hands start to cramp. "What if we can't find enough evidence?" she asks the others. "What if he goes down for this? What if everything falls apart?"

"Hey," Chin says, his tone low and reassuring as he puts his arm around her shoulders. "We're ohana. I'm going to make sure you're okay."

Danny raises his hand. "Me, too. I'm gonna do that, too."

Kono laughs, shaking her head. She doesn't quite know how to feel about their offers. On the one hand, it's nice to be offered help. On the other, Kono is used to doing things for herself. She hasn't needed anyone to take care of her since she was a child. The need for help feels almost like a chain around her neck, weighing her down. 

Whatever. With Kono's knee all shot to hell, Mama in the hospital and Auntie dying, in need of a kidney transplant, there was only one option. Getting the money from ASEP. It meant giving up her freedom. It meant feeling like this. 

Kono knew what she was getting herself into. 

~*~

"I'm a little worried about your blood pressure," Dr. Sakamoto tells Catherine, the concern on her face more serene than Catherine thinks should be possible. "I'd like you to come back to have it checked in another two days."

"What happens if it's still high?" Catherine asks, sending a quick glance to Steve, who's wearing his "I'm scarier than this worry" scowl.

"You'd induce, right?" Steve asks, and Dr. Sakamoto nods.

"We probably would, yes. After all, you're 38 weeks along. You're at term." The doctor shrugs and folds her hands in her lap. "Up until post-term, each day the baby wants to be inside the mom is a day I want to let it be. However, increasing blood pressure can be a sign of preeclampsia, which can develop into a very serious condition. In that case, induction has a much better chance of preserving your health than of harming your baby's health."

Catherine mulls over the doctor's words, mostly inclined to believe that she knows what she's talking about. Still, a question occurs to her. "What about a cesarean?"

The doctor frowns a little and says, "That's another way to go, yes. The recovery takes—"

A ringing phone interrupts her. Sheepishly, Steve takes his phone out of his pocket and turns off the ringer. "Sorry," he says, turning his full attention back to the conversation at hand. "Are you sure you don't want to keep her in the hospital? You know, just in case?"

Dr. Sakamoto looks at Steve like he suddenly has a third eye or something. "That's not necessary.

"But–"

Addressing Catherine, the doctor hands her a flyer and says, "Be sure to call us if you're experiencing any of these symptoms." She flips the paper over in Catherine's hands, "And call an ambulance if you experience any of _these_ symptoms. Okay?"

Steve feels his phone buzzing in his pocket again, but he ignores it. 

"Okay," Catherine says as she folds up the piece of paper and stashes it in her back pocket. "I guess we'll see you in two days."

Steve's phone rings again as the doctor says her goodbyes and leaves the room. He answers it, noting the caller ID. "What, Danny? What's the big emergency?"

"The big emergency, _Steven_ ," he says with some bite in his tone, "is that HPD has a warrant for your arrest. They're heading to pick you up now."

The information is so far from what Steve was expecting Danny to say that it takes him a moment to process the words. "What? A warrant for my arrest? On what charges?"

Catherine gives Steve an alarmed look, wrapping her hand around his upper arm in a show of concern. 

"The murder of Laura Hills," Danny replies. 

"Danny, this is bullshit," Steve says, standing up and pacing across the exam room. "I'm being set up!"

"I _know_ that! Chin and Kono – even Duke – know that, too." Danny sighs. "Steve, I know you're going to want to do something rash–"

"I'm being framed for something I didn't do!" Steve cries, wincing when he sees Catherine jump at the sudden volume in his voice.

"You've got to trust the system," Danny says, and Steve can't help but rankle at how little Danny seems to understand just how penned-in Steve is feeling. 

"Trust the system? Danny, Jameson _runs_ the system. I can't trust–"

Steve is cut off when Catherine takes his phone from his hand and disconnects the call. She presses her car keys into his hand and says, "Go. Stay under the radar. Danny and I and the others will get everything figured out."

"No, Catherine! You–" Steve's tongue can't quite make words out of his worry for Catherine's health in his absence. It's too big to properly express. 

Catherine shakes her head. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it's better to turn yourself in. Trust the system full of corrupt cops, headed by a corrupt governor. I'm sure everything will work out."

Steve can't help but narrow his eyes at Catherine. "You and Danny have been spending too much time together." 

He takes the keys and gives Catherine the best kiss he can under the circumstances. 

"Keep your blood pressure down, huh? I'm going to be there when he's born."

Catherine's lips press together and her jaw clenches even as she nods. "I'm gonna hold you to that, McGarrett."

Steve kisses her once more and then slips from the building. As he drives away, he sees through his rear view police cars pulling into the lot. He tries to tell himself that Catherine is more than capable of holding her own against whatever interrogation they're going to put her through. Still, he's haunted by the worry that they're going to make her blood pressure rise too high, and something bad is going to happen. 

Steve clenches his jaw and keeps driving. He needs supplies...and a plan.

~*~

Catherine takes deep, calming breaths, one after the other, as she waits for HPD to find her. If she weren't pregnant, Catherine knows she would go looking for them first. She might've even gone with Steve. As it is, the risk of a bullet injuring not just her, but the baby, is too great. 

Catherine's not sure she's ever experienced something quite so maddeningly claustrophobic as this wait. Luckily, it doesn't last for too long. 

An HPD officer opens the door and enters the room gun-first. She notices Catherine, and continues to check the corners of the small room as she says, "Hands on your head, ma'am."

Complying with the officer's request, Catherine asks, "What's going on?" like she doesn't know exactly who they're looking for. 

"Do you know a man named Steve McGarrett?"

There's something about the officer's tone that just irks Catherine. She drops her hands onto her thighs and asks, "You mean the head of the governor's task force and my ASEP partner? Yeah. I know him."

The officer frowns at Catherine's attitude, but doesn't order her to put her hands back up. "Was he here?"

Wanting to protect Steve, Catherine dodges the real question and responds, "He's been in this building before, yes. In case you hadn't noticed, we're expecting. He's been coming to my appointments with me."

"Was he in the building _today_?" The officer is starting to sound exasperated, which makes Catherine smirk a little. 

"He left a little while ago," Catherine admits. "Right after the doctor told us we might have to induce early if I get too stressed out."

The officer's eyes go wide and she hastily puts her gun in its holster. "I'm sorry, ma'am." She sits on the doctor's stool facing Catherine and asks, "Did he say where he might be going?"

"No, he didn't," Catherine says, fully aware that this time she's actually telling the truth. 

"Would he go home?"

"It depends on whether he knows you're looking for him or not." Catherine narrows her eyes at the officer. "What is this about, anyway?"

The officer sighs placing her hands on her hips. "He's wanted for questioning in a murder investigation. It would really be better for everyone if you could just tell me where he is."

"I honestly don't know." Conveniently, Catherine hasn't been asked about her car and who might be driving it. 

The officer shifts on her feet. "Fine. Be sure to contact us if you do hear from him." She reaches for the door. "We're counting on you to do the right thing, Miss."

"It's Lieutenant," Catherine replies, a bit snidely. "And don't you worry. I'll do exactly the right thing."

On her way out the door, the officer narrows her eyes at Catherine. "Goodbye, Lieutenant."

After the door closes, Catherine takes a few deep, calming breaths. Then, she pulls her phone out of her bag and dials Danny.

"Cath!" Danny cries when he answers. "What's going on? Is he with you?"

"No, he's not," she says, rubbing at the way one of her temples feels tight. "And I know you're busy, but I could really use a ride."

"I'll be right there," he says, and hangs up, before Catherine can give him the address. 

She has a feeling he already knows it.

~*~

Though he's done something similar once or twice before, Steve has never taken on a mission like this while so ill-prepared. All he has is the knife from Catherine's glove compartment. His service weapon is still in the lock box of his truck, back at the clinic. There hadn't been time to grab it without getting caught. 

The Governor's mansion has a security team that Steve has helped assemble over the past year, recommending old colleagues for positions as they opened up. And Steve only recommended the best. At this moment, he's feeling like maybe he should've been a little more derelict in his duty.

All he needs is five minutes alone with the governor. He'll get her to confess on tape, and that will clear him of any wrongdoing. Danny's voice in his head says that a tape like that won't be admissible in court, but Steve doesn't care. Between a recording and the ASEP lawyers, HPD will be forced to pursue other leads, leaving Steve free to go back to his family.

It could be any second now that his eldest son will be born. God help anyone who gets between Steve and finally being able to hold that baby in his arms.

What Steve needs here is more firepower, and he knows just who to call.

~*~

Chin, Kono, and Jenna are halfway through scrubbing from the stage-owned computers any files that could incriminate Steve, when his phone rings. It's his old captain from HPD, and Chin is convinced it's news of Steve being caught, maybe even killed. He answers the phone and holds his breath. 

"Chin, I'd like a meeting," the captain says. "Before the end of the day, if you can swing it."

Letting his breath out in a confused rush, Chin asks, "A meeting? About what?"

"Well, frankly, a meeting about what your return to HPD might look like. Rumor has it you might be looking for a position come this time tomorrow, and I want to make sure you think of us."

"Really?" Chin scoffs as he walks toward his office, closing the door behind him. "Your officers have a manhunt going after my _innocent_ friend, and you're offering me a job?"

The Captain hums, then says, "You passed your lieutenant's exam before you left. I could offer you the new title, and the pay increase that comes with it."

"Captain…"

"I hear you've got a wedding on the horizon. A little extra pay could help give your fiancée the party she deserves."

It's a low blow, though the captain does have a point. Part of the reason he and Malia haven't set a date for their wedding is that they've been saving up to pay for it. It's not like Chin's family has any money to speak of, and while John McGarrett has plenty of ASEP benefits, none of them come with much cash to spare.

Chin sighs. As tempting as the offer is, he can't just _leave_ Five-0. Not until it's truly over. "I don't–"

"Just think about it," says the captain. 

"I will," Chin replies, as if he doesn't already have enough to think about. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: binge drinking alcohol, questionably wise sexual encounters
> 
> I can no longer keep to a posting schedule (obviously). Chapters will come as they are finished. If you're still reading, thanks so much for sticking with me!

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't be shy! Tell me what you thought of this chapter! I'd love to hear from you.
> 
> You can also find me [on tumblr.](http://pterawaters.tumblr.com/)


End file.
